●The industry is still at the middle and low end of the value chain, but the prospects are broad
●The central enterprises can take advantage of their advantages to promote the high-quality development of the new materials industry
●Engineering plastics, biodegradable materials, high-performance fibers, functional membrane materials, high-performance composite materials, electronic chemicals, etc. are the key development areas of new chemical materials
According to my country's industry classification, the category of new chemical materials includes three categories: advanced organic polymer materials, high-end specialty chemicals and others. Among them, advanced organic polymer materials are subdivided into high-performance resins (high-end polyolefins, engineering plastics, fluorosilicone resins, degradable plastics, etc.), high-performance synthetic rubbers (special synthetic rubbers, thermoplastic elastomers, etc.), high-performance fibers and Functional membrane materials, etc.; high-end specialty chemicals mainly include electronic chemicals; others also include cutting-edge new materials such as graphene.
New chemical materials are widely used in many fields of the national economy and national defense and military industries, and have become one of the fastest growing fields in my country's chemical industry system. In 2019, the output of the main categories of new chemical materials in my country was close to 19 million tons, the apparent consumption was close to 30 million tons, and the self-sufficiency rate was about 61%.
In general, my country’s new chemical materials products are still at the low-end level of the industrial value chain, and the development of the industry still faces seven major problems: First, some new chemical materials are self-sufficient, but their performance indicators, stability and other aspects are at an advanced level. gap. Second, some new material products are single, the degree of serialization is not high, the application technology research is backward, and the market response ability and technical services are relatively lacking. Third, some new chemical materials are limited by upstream raw materials and need to eliminate the supply bottleneck of key supporting raw materials. Fourth, some new material products have a structural surplus. Fifth, some users of new material products have high stickiness, and downstream users are slow to accept new products. Sixth, most companies are small in scale, have weak innovation capabilities, weak competitiveness, and insufficient investment in R&D and equipment. Seventh, the shortage of strategic and innovative talents restricts the development of enterprises and industries.
At the same time, the new chemical material industry has good development opportunities. On the one hand, new urbanization and consumption upgrades will continue to drive demand growth.
On the other hand, the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry has driven huge market demand. The "New Material Industry Development Guide" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other ministries and commissions puts forward that one of the key tasks of the new material industry is to break through the urgently needed new materials in key application fields—promote the supply-side structural reform of the raw material industry, focusing on high-end equipment manufacturing, energy conservation and environmental protection. We will accelerate the adjustment of the product structure of advanced basic materials, actively develop intensive processing and high value-added products, and increase the proportion of production and research and development of key strategic materials.
For large central enterprises such as Sinopec, the development of new materials has certain advantages. First of all, technology is the key to new materials, and the development of new technologies and new products is highly uncertain and requires a long time of investment and accumulation. Large state-owned enterprises have the strength of capital and talents, and their ability to bear technology development risks is relatively strong. Secondly, the development and application of new materials involves multiple links in production, education, research and application, and the establishment of large-scale central enterprises is relatively complete, which is conducive to work. In addition, new materials are directly applied to the terminal market. At present, material manufacturers in the fields of electronic information, rail transit, and automobiles still face high barriers to entry, and the brand and product guarantee capabilities of large central enterprises are conducive to rapid market entry.
Therefore, central SOEs can combine their own advantages, play the role of the main force, concentrate on increasing investment, and overcome new material technical problems. It is necessary to integrate the application market, and pay particular attention to the future development needs of my country's high-end equipment manufacturing fields, such as new energy vehicles, energy saving and environmental protection, medical health, and new generation information technology.
From the perspective of the government, it can also promote the high-quality development of the new material industry from many aspects. For example, assisting in the formation of industry-university-research alliances to focus their efforts on research; assisting domestic new material products to successfully pass user certification in the downstream field; providing appropriate support for the development of key core technologies and the use of the first batch of domestic products.
