China's New Chemical Materials Industry Development Faces 4 Major Problems

China's New Chemical Materials Industry Development Faces 4 Major Problems

New chemical materials refer to new materials produced by means of chemical synthesis, as well as part of the new chemical materials as the basis for the secondary processing of composite materials, is an important part of the new materials industry. High-end new chemical materials mainly refers to advanced polymer materials, including functional membrane materials, electronic chemicals, special coatings, special adhesives, inorganic functional materials (graphene, nanomaterials, etc.), new energy materials, etc. Accelerating the development of high-end new chemical materials is of strategic significance in promoting technological innovation, supporting industrial upgrading and building a strong manufacturing country.

• Global new chemical materials industry to maintain rapid growth trend

New-generation information technology and new materials are the two major “chassis technologies” of the manufacturing industry. New-generation information technology is the driving force of the fourth industrial revolution, and new materials are the indispensable material foundation for supporting strategic emerging industries and major projects. The deep integration of information technology and new materials promotes the high-end development of manufacturing industry.

The global new materials industry is developing rapidly, and its scale is expanding continuously. 2023 global new materials output value reached 7.2 trillion dollars. According to the statistics of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, in 2023, the global production of new chemical materials exceeded 110 million tons, with an output value of about 470 billion U.S. dollars, and in 2025, it is expected to reach 480 billion U.S. dollars. The new chemical materials industry is an important field for future scientific and technological development and economic growth, the key to building the world's manufacturing powerhouse, and a hotspot for the competition of comprehensive national power.

From a global perspective, the monopoly of the new materials industry has intensified, and the technical barriers to high-end materials are becoming increasingly evident. Large multinational corporations with technology research and development, capital, talent and other advantages, technology, patents and so on as barriers, has been in most of the high technology content, high value-added new materials product development has occupied a dominant position. The leading enterprises are concentrated in the U.S., Europe and Japan, generally showing a three-tier echelon competition pattern. The first echelon is a very mature globalization layout, high global visibility, experienced enterprises in the chemical field, such as the United States Dow Chemical, Germany BASF, the United States ExxonMobil, Japan Mitsubishi Chemical, etc.; the second echelon is the top-ranking enterprises in developed countries, which are also engaged in globalization layout, but still have some focus, such as Germany Evonik, the United States 3M, Japan Mitsui Chemicals, the United States Airborne Chemical and other companies in the The third echelon is mainly the enterprises focusing on their own countries, which are in the state of catching up and undertaking industrial transfer under the support of the governments of various countries (emerging economies such as Brazil, India, South Africa, etc.).

The global chemical new materials industry along with the development of advanced manufacturing industry to maintain rapid growth trend, the overall presentation of high technology leadership, new product iteration, industrialization expansion and demand for the expansion of the surface and other characteristics, and to the direction of green, low-carbon, refined, saving development. The process of new material research and development and preparation method innovation has been accelerated. The emergence of new material design methods represented by material genetic engineering has significantly reduced the R&D cycle and R&D cost of new materials and accelerated the innovation process of new materials.

• China's new chemical materials industry has huge space for future development

China's new materials industry production system is basically complete, the scale of the industry continues to grow, has formed the world's most complete categories, the scale of the first materials industry system. China's iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, rare earth metals, cement, glass, chemical fibers, advanced energy storage materials, photovoltaic materials, silicone, polyurethane raw materials, super-hard materials, special stainless steel and more than a hundred kinds of materials production ranked first in the world. It has gradually established a new material innovation system which is enterprise-oriented, market-oriented and combines “production, learning, research and utilization”. Relying on regional resource advantages, the formation of the Bohai Rim, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, the central and western regions, the Northeast and other new materials industry clusters.

At present, the development of China's new chemical materials industry has a certain foundation. 2022 domestic new chemical materials sales of about 900 billion yuan, 2.7 times more than in 2015, accounting for about 30% of the global output value. But in general, the overall technical strength still lags behind the United States, Europe and other developed countries and regions, facing a number of challenges and problems:    

1. First, the increase in production capacity of major chemical products is much larger than the growth in demand. For example, China's synthetic resin production growth rate, while the traditional industry consumption growth rate is slower, the domestic supply and demand contradictions are more prominent; most of the basic chemical raw materials consumption growth rate is a continuing trend of slowdown, with the expansion of production capacity, in 2022, the total domestic production capacity of the 24 major chemical products and consumption ratio of 110% in 2021 to climb to 118%, the phenomenon of surplus is worsening.

2. Secondly, the structural contradiction of major chemical products is more prominent. Domestic high-end manufacturing, the rapid development of strategic emerging industries, the demand for high-end new materials continues to grow, but the domestic petrochemical industry innovation capacity is insufficient, green and safe development level is not high, restricting the high-end development of the industry. 2022, China's average self-sufficiency rate of high-end chemical materials is about 54%, and some of the products are imported for a long time with a large annual import volume and a high degree of dependence on the outside world, such as metallocene polyethylene, the degree of foreign dependence of more than 90%. China's petrochemical industry foreign trade deficit is mainly concentrated in high-end synthetic materials, high-end membrane materials, high-performance fibers and composite materials, high-purity reagents, high-end electronic chemicals and other fields.

3. Third, the market competition is more intense. With the intensification of the contradiction between supply and demand, the bulk of general products market competition is more intense, the market competition has changed from a single product competition to the whole industry chain integration competition, large, medium and small enterprises to integrate the development of the pattern is taking shape, the industry chain complementary strategic collaborative development model will become the industry norm. The industrial layout of more enterprises will change from making the scale of bulk basic products to making stronger and more refined products, and “specialization, specialization and innovation” will become the mainstream of market efficiency. Multinational corporations wholly-owned layout of the domestic high-end market is also accelerating the pace.

4. Fourth, the urgency of attacking the key core technology of high-end materials has become more and more prominent. Since the “13th Five-Year Plan”, the domestic new production of high-end polyolefin projects are mostly the introduction of multinational technology. High-purity electronic chemicals, some key catalysts, medical high-end membrane materials, high-performance fibers and composites, carbon fiber production line carbonization furnace and other large sets of technology, high-end products, core equipment, China's petrochemical enterprises still do not master the core technology, technology engineering, industrialization of the results of the international leading enterprises compared to the gap is still very large.    

At present, although facing many challenges, but China's new chemical materials industry has a huge space for future development. Terminal manufacturing enterprises have to speed up the localization of high-end materials to replace the urgent need for the localization of new chemical materials, the future of high-end polyolefins, engineering plastics, high-performance fibers, functional membrane materials and electronic chemicals and other aspects of domestic materials to replace the import of huge space. At the same time, the domestic downstream emerging industries have a strong demand for high-end new chemical materials, providing new market opportunities for the chemical materials industry.    

In terms of the innovation chain, basic research on domestic materials is increasingly emphasized. With the improvement of China's scientific and technological development level and the changes in the international environment, the ability of original innovation has become a key element for China to further enhance its international competitiveness, and the importance of basic research has gradually been highly valued by the state. In the field of chemistry and materials science, China's research activity is ranked first in the world. In 2022, for example, the number of China's top three frontier research in this field accounts for 92.31%, and the research frontier heat index is about 2.5 times that of the U.S., which is in the second place; large scientific devices are more closely linked to materials research, playing the role of the originator of original innovation.    

In terms of industrial chain, China has the advantage of the whole industrial chain from crude oil mining to refining, from raw materials (monomer) to process, products, processing, application and recycling. After 40 years of innovation and development, SINOPEC has formed a feedstock system based on petroleum, coal and natural gas, supplemented by needle coke and biomass, etc., and is accelerating the integration of the “dual-chain”, with the main synthetic resins, synthetic rubbers, synthetic fibers, and other chemical materials technology industrialized, and breakthroughs in some of its high-end products. We have also accelerated the layout of green resource utilization of waste materials, extensively developed physical recycling and chemical recycling technologies to solve the problem of reusing waste polymer materials, and solved the pollution problem of waste and the problem of hydrocarbon resource utilization with resource utilization technologies.

• China's new chemical materials industry development trend and suggestions

During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, China's new chemical materials industry will focus on the development of high-end polyolefins, engineering plastics and special engineering plastics, special rubbers and elastomers, high-performance fibers and composites, functional membrane materials, electronic chemicals, and other series of new chemical materials, with the aim of increasing the comprehensive self-sufficiency rate to 80% by 2025.    

In the future, the development of new chemical materials technology will be more deeply integrated with other disciplines and fields, machine learning, generative artificial intelligence, interpretable artificial intelligence, automated laboratories (such as robots) and other technologies may completely change the paradigm of materials science research; technological revolutions and industrial changes will be more dependent on the innovation of information-functional materials, and a new generation of artificial intelligence, big data, quantum computation and other representative Information technology will become the focus of competition, and will also promote the sharp rise in demand for information functional materials and technological progress; the requirements of green and low-carbon development will promote the development of materials green production technology and bio-based materials, green materials as a link, organically linked with new energy technology, energy efficient technology, clean production technology, resource recycling technology, etc., will become an important engine for green and low-carbon development; to meet the requirements of the deep space, deep sea, deep earth and other extreme environments and high-end materials science research paradigm; to meet the deep space, deep sea, deep earth and other extreme environments and high-end materials science research paradigm. Deep space, deep sea, deep earth and other extreme environments and high-end equipment manufacturing with new materials will set off the next round of technological upgrading boom, such as carbon fiber and other high-performance composite materials are replacing traditional materials to support more advanced new energy vehicles, aerospace equipment and other iterations of upgrading.

In order to promote the high-quality development of China's new chemical materials industry, we should adhere to the “four directions”, focus on the major national strategic needs, and carry out solid basic research and applied basic research. As China's level of science and technology continues to rise, it is necessary to continue to aim at the world's scientific and technological frontiers, forward-looking layout of basic research and applied basic research, pay attention to the original innovation and disruptive technological innovation, and seize the commanding heights of the future competition in the new materials industry. Basic research and applied basic research in the field of traditional materials such as polyolefins should be supported to continuously improve material properties and support high-end applications.

Top-level design and mechanism innovation should be strengthened. Cutting-edge materials should be tackled to meet national strategic needs, the high-endization of bulk materials should be accelerated, and medium- and low-end basic materials should be used to reduce costs and expand applications. The national level should give full play to the top-level design role of the Leading Group for the Development of New Materials Industry and the Expert Advisory Committee, etc.; the discipline level should strengthen the role of the innovation main body of the science and technology leading enterprises, strengthen the integration of the development of disciplines and industrial applications, and give full play to the advantages of “industry-academia-research and application” joint innovation; the enterprise level should lay out the cutting-edge materials, high-endization of bulk materials, and low-cost basic materials. High-end and low-cost basic materials.    

We should give full play to the advantages of integration, and do a good job of industry chain extension and integration. Strengthen the construction of new chemical materials industry chain collaborative innovation body and key core technology joint research, break through the raw materials, polymerization process, processing applications and other key “choke points”, to achieve the extension of the industrial chain, value chain. Promote the “four-chain integration” of “innovation chain + industry chain + capital chain + talent chain”. Deeply understand the significance of strategic raw material resources for the sustainable development of new materials, attach great importance to the extraction of raw materials, recycling and alternative research.    

Artificial intelligence technology should be applied to assist the screening and development of new materials. The basic concept of material genome is to change the traditional “trial and error” material research mode, develop a new material research and development mode of “rational design - high-efficiency experiments - big data technology - artificial intelligence” in-depth integration and collaborative innovation, and establish material performance prediction models through data-driven machine learning algorithms, as well as to develop a new material research and development model through data-driven machine learning algorithms. The data-driven machine learning algorithm establishes material performance prediction models and applies them to material screening and new material development.    

To promote the development and application of green chemical technology. Under the background of “dual-carbon”, green chemistry is a major trend in the development of the industry. Guided by the principles of green chemistry, we should continue to make efforts in the fields of raw material greening, catalyst greening, reaction engineering greening, energy greening, product greening and resource utilization, so as to achieve high conversion rate, high selectivity and efficient energy utilization in industrial applications, non-toxicity or low toxicity of raw materials, media and products, and minimal emission of waste and by-products.

In conclusion, China's new chemical materials industry is facing major challenges, but also contains a huge potential for development. YINSU Flame Retardant Company will follow the country's footsteps, our products: red phosphorus flame retardant, intumescent flame retardant, bromine antimony flame retardant and a variety of materials dedicated to the development of flame retardant in the direction of greening, low carbonization and so on. We firmly believe that China's new chemical material industry will make great progress as long as we face up to the existing problems, give full play to our own advantages in the innovation chain and industrial chain, and actively embrace the emerging technologies and trends such as artificial intelligence and green chemistry.