PVA Market Overview

Industry chain introduction: polyvinyl alcohol and Vinylon Industry is a sub industry of the chemical industry. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is a high molecular polymer, which is made by polymerization and alcoholysis after the synthesis of vinyl acetate (VAC) by calcium carbide acetylene method. It has good adhesion, film-forming property and oil resistance, as well as pollution-free and degradable characteristics rarely seen in high molecular materials. In the process of PVA production, calcium carbide slag producing acetylene is used to produce cement clinker, and alcoholysis mother liquor is used to recover methyl acetate, which can be refined into refined methyl acetate or acetic anhydride.

On the one hand, the downstream market of traditional PVA products is widely used in adhesives, textile pulp, papermaking, building materials and other fields; On the other hand, it turns to new application materials downstream of PVA to produce PVA extension products with high added value, including new materials such as PVA high-strength and high modulus fiber, PVA water-soluble fiber, PVB resin, PVA optical film, redispersible latex powder and so on. Based on the whole PVA industry chain, the company has basically formed product chains such as calcium carbide PVA PVA fiber, pva-pva optical film for film, pva-pvb-pvb film, waste molasses alcohol ethylene vinyl acetate VAE / PVA, VAE redispersible latex powder, calcium carbide slag cement clinker, PVA methyl acetate (by-product) - acetic anhydride / ethanol.

From the perspective of the downstream consumption structure of special PVA, high strength and high modulus PVA fiber is widely used in building materials, construction, tanning, rubber, medical devices and other fields because of its advantages of high modulus, high strength and no pollution; PVB resin is mainly used to produce safety glass in construction and automobile industry, some of which are used in photovoltaic materials, and the rest are used in paint, glue, dye and other materials; Redispersible latex powder is mainly used in exterior wall insulation, tile bonding, bonding gypsum, plastering gypsum, decorative mortar and other construction fields; PVA optical film is the core film material of polarizer, which is the key material of liquid crystal display; VAE emulsion has the advantages of permanent softness, water resistance, weather resistance, high adhesion speed and high strength. It is widely used in adhesives, building waterproofing, paper coating and other markets.

China's PVA production capacity accounts for more than 50% of the world, and the industrial concentration is further improved

The global PVA concentration is high, and the Asia Pacific region accounts for more than 85% of the world's total output. The global production of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is mainly concentrated in a few countries and regions such as China, Japan and the United States, with a total unit capacity of about 1.85 million tons and an actual output of about 1.35 million tons in 2020. Among them, the Asia Pacific region is the main production region, accounting for more than 85% of the world's total output. The representative enterprises in the world are mainly Japanese cola, Japan hydrochemical Industry Co., Japan Synthetic Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., Anhui Anhui Wei hi tech Limited by Share Ltd, China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Group Co., Ltd., China Taiwan Changchun group, Inner Mongolia Shuangxin environmental protection materials Co., Ltd. and Ningxia Dadi Recycling Development Co., Ltd.

Domestic PVA production capacity accounts for more than 50% of the world, and the overall capacity utilization shows an upward trend. According to statistics, the total capacity of PVA in mainland China (excluding Taiwan, China) in 2021 was 996 thousand tons, occupying over 50% of global capacity. China is the world's largest producer of PVA. With the continuous improvement of China's economic development, demand structure adjustment, environmental protection supervision and safety requirements, the number of maintenance downtime of chemical enterprises has increased greatly. From 2016 to 2020, the production capacity of China's polyvinyl alcohol industry decreased slowly year by year, from 1245000 tons in 2016 to 1135000 tons in 2020. At the same time, the annual output of PVA in China has increased steadily. The CAGR from 2016 to 2020 was about 7.87%, and the output fell back to 612200 tons in 2018, with a capacity utilization rate of about 49.98%; In 2020, the output of polyvinyl alcohol in China reached 786700 tons, with a year-on-year increase of 18.27%, and the capacity utilization rate was 69.31%. In recent years, the capacity utilization rate of PVA in China has increased steadily.

The domestic PVA supply pattern has improved and the industrial concentration has increased. After several rounds of industry reshuffle, the weak enterprises in the domestic polyvinyl alcohol and vinylon industry continue to withdraw, and more small and medium-sized backward production capacity has been cleared. The PVA product market has gradually concentrated to the advantageous enterprises with large production scale, high market share, strong R & D capacity, advanced technology, long industrial chain, low cost and good efficiency. More than 60% of the domestic PVA production capacity is produced by calcium carbide acetylene method. According to the 2021 interim report of wanwei hi tech, the main domestic PVA production enterprises are Anhui wanwei hi tech materials Co., Ltd. (310000 tons), Sinopec Chongqing Chuanwei Chemical Co., Ltd. (160000 tons), Ningxia Dadi Recycling Development Co., Ltd. (130000 tons), Inner Mongolia Shuangxin environmental protection materials Co., Ltd. (130000 tons) China Taiwan Changchun group Jiangsu plant (120 thousand tons), etc., the top five manufacturers have 850 thousand tons of capacity, accounting for 80% of domestic production capacity, and further industrial concentration.

The downstream demand of PVA is upward, and the application of new materials continues to develop

The production and sales of PVA in China showed a synchronous growth trend. After more than ten years of fierce competition and reshuffle, China's polyvinyl alcohol Vinylon Industry is showing a new pattern of optimized production capacity, improved concentration, slow growth of market demand, continuous increase of innovation investment and moderate competition. In 2020, COVID-19 made a certain impact on the industry. However, with the development of domestic and international double cycle development pattern and the mining of new functional areas in the domestic market, production and marketing showed a trend of synchronous growth and reached a new balance between supply and demand. The annual sales volume of China is 6605300 tons, and the annual output of China is 66000 tons; In 2020, the output of PVA was 786700 tons, with an increase of 18.27% and the external sales volume was 687300 tons, with an increase of 28.80%. The overall production and sales volume of domestic PVA in 2020 increased significantly compared with the previous year.

China's PVA import volume tends to be stable, and overseas export demand is expected to continue to increase. In recent years, with the continuous increase of China's production capacity and output, the import and export of polyvinyl alcohol in China has changed to some extent. From the import and export data, China's PVA import volume is far lower than the export volume and tends to be stable, while the export volume has reached a new high from 2016 to 2019, which can better alleviate the impact of the decline of domestic demand. According to Zhuo Chuang information, China's PVA export volume reached 171300 tons in 2019, with a year-on-year increase of 32.3%. In 2020, China's PVA export volume was 141100 tons, with a year-on-year decrease of 17.61% affected by the epidemic; China's PVA import volume was 41700 tons, with a year-on-year increase of 5.19%.

Polyvinyl alcohol is widely used downstream, and the industrial chain continues to expand. With the introduction of new technologies, processes and products, the continuous expansion of new application fields and the gradual replacement of imported products, new development opportunities have been brought to the domestic polyvinyl alcohol Vinylon Industry. The global consumption structure of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is as follows: polymerization additives account for about 24%, polyvinyl butyral (PVB) accounts for about 15%, adhesives account for about 14%, textile size accounts for about 14%, and paper size and coating account for about 10%. China's consumption structure is as follows: polymerization additives account for about 38%, fabric size accounts for about 20%, adhesives account for about 12%, vinylon fiber accounts for about 11%, papermaking size and coating account for about 8%, architectural coatings account for about 5% and others account for 6%. Polymerization additives, fabric size and adhesives are the main downstream consumer markets of polyvinyl alcohol.