Industry profits continue to shrunk The breakthrough in the development of cellulose ether industry

Under the influence of factors such as the shortage of raw cotton linters and the downward adjustment of export tax rebates, the profit space of the cellulose ether industry is shrinking. This is the information uploaded by the national cellulose ether industry conference in 2007 held in Feicheng, Shandong from October 25 to October 27. In an interview with the reporter, Ding Changyin, secretary general of the National Association of Cellulose Ether Industry, pointed out that despite years of efforts, the industry’s technical and economic indicators, production automation, labor productivity, and product quality have all increased significantly, but there are still many in the industry’s development. Urgently needed to break through, raise the overall technical level of the industry, and vigorously develop high-end products are the key to the future development of the industry.

Limited equipment and craftsmanship

According to reports, cellulose ethers are classified into ionic cellulose ethers and non-ionic cellulose ethers. Among them, ionic cellulose ethers are represented by CMC (sodium carboxymethyl cellulose) and have a long history of development. Under the constant stimulation of market demand, non-ionic cellulose ether products have emerged in recent years and have shown strong growth. Growth momentum.

Ding Changyin pointed out that the quality of cellulose ether products is mainly determined by purity. In the international community, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has clearly required that the purity of CMC products be above 99.5%. At present, China's CMC production has already accounted for one-third of the world's production, but its product quality is low, and most of its exports are low-end products with low added value. The annual export volume of CMC is much larger than the import volume, but the total value of goods is quite comparable.

The low level of mechanical equipment in the domestic purification process severely restricts the development of the industry. The main impurity of the product is sodium chloride. In the past, China generally used a three-legged centrifuge, the purification process was intermittent operation, labor intensity, high energy consumption, product quality is also difficult to increase. The National Association of Cellulose Ether Industry began to organize research in 2003 and has achieved gratifying results. The purity of some companies' products can reach more than 99.5%.

In addition, the degree of automation of the entire production line is far from that of foreign countries. Although domestic enterprises like Xi'an Huian Fine Chemicals Co., Ltd. have already achieved full-automatic production, the current domestic per capita labor productivity is only 1/3 of the foreign advanced level. In this regard, Ding Changyin suggested that the combination of foreign equipment and domestic equipment be considered and that imported equipment be supported at key points to increase the automation of the production line.

Compared with ionic products, non-ionic cellulose ethers have higher technical requirements and urgently need to break through the technical barriers in the production process, new product development, and application development.

Environmental resource issues appear

This year is the year of China's energy saving and emission reduction. The report of the 17th National Congress of the People's Republic of China proposes that we must adhere to the basic national policy of resource conservation and environmental protection, and build a resource-saving and environment-friendly society. Therefore, the correct treatment of environmental resources will affect the development of the industry. Important.

On the one hand, the "three wastes" treatment problem looks forward to new technologies. It is understood that the industry's discharge of wastewater is mainly due to solvent distillation of foot water, high salt content, and high COD. Now people in the industry are trying to find a good solution and prefer to use biochemical methods. The association commissioned Beijing Institute of Technology, South China University of Technology, and East China University of Technology to tackle the industry's "three wastes" treatment. The South China University of Technology's CMC wastewater resource technology has entered the pilot stage.

On the other hand, the supply of raw materials is getting tight. In China, the raw materials for the production of cellulose ethers are mainly cotton linters, which were agricultural wastes before the 1980s. The production of cellulose ethers is an industry that turns waste into treasure. However, with the rapid development of other industries such as viscose fiber, raw material cotton linter has long been a “treasure of treasure”. Although raw materials are renewable resources, due to multiple factors such as land acreage, catastrophic climate, and related industry competition, it is a foregone conclusion that demand exceeds supply. The association encourages companies to import wood pulp from Russia, Brazil, Canada, and other foreign countries, partially replacing cotton linters, in order to ease the growing shortage of raw materials.

There are hidden risks in disorderly competition

The disorderly competition phenomenon also exists in the cellulose ether industry. Compared with other chemical projects, cellulose ether has a small investment, a short construction period, and a wide range of applications. The current market situation is gratifying, and the phenomenon of disorderly expansion of the industry is relatively serious, and profits of the industry are continuously decreasing. Ding Changyin pointed out that although the current CMC operating rate is still acceptable, but with the continuous release of new production capacity, market competition will become increasingly white-hot, he called for companies to rational expansion of energy, and more high-tech projects.

In recent years, due to the overcapacity in the country, the export volume of CMC has maintained rapid growth. However, the export tax rebate rate has been lowered this year, and the appreciation of the renminbi has caused the export profits of products to continue to decline. Therefore, strengthening technological transformation, improving product quality, exporting high-end products, and competing with foreign monopoly companies are the top priorities of the industry. The cellulose ether industry in China is still immature. In the future development, we must pay attention to the improvement of the overall level of the industry. The overall technological level must be oriented towards high quality, low consumption, safety, and high efficiency. Compared with foreign countries, although the scale of the company is not small, it lacks a leading enterprise that can play a decisive role in the development of the industry and market changes, which to some extent hinders the industry's capital investment in technology upgrading.

Secretary-general Ding also pointed out that as the concept of energy conservation and emission reduction is firmly rooted in people’s minds, corporate social responsibility has also become a hot topic among CEOs. People-oriented and cleaner production will lead to the development of the entire cellulose ether industry in a healthy direction. Actively promote the role.

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