2024 Key events in the polyester industry chain

Xinfengming plans to invest RMB 20 billion yuan to build polyester fiber project

On the evening of January 10, Xinfengming announced that Tongxiang Zhonghong New Materials Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as "Zhonghong New Materials"), a wholly-owned subsidiary, plans to invest in the construction of new materials projects with its own funds or self-raised funds, with a total investment of about RMB 20 billion yuan. According to the announcement, the construction contents of the project include an annual output of 2.5 million tons of differentiated polyester fiber materials and 100kt of polyester film materials.

On February 18, Zhejiang Province held the centralized commencement and operation of "1,000 trillion" major projects in Zhejiang Province in 2024, in which the Zhonghong New Material construction project of Xinfengming Group participated in this centralized commencement.

On October 9, the "Jiaxing Ecological Environment Bureau" issued a notice regarding the acceptance of the environmental impact assessment documents for the project of Zhonghong New Materials Co., Ltd. in Tongxiang City, which aims to produce 650,000 tons of differentiated polyester fiber materials annually. The project includes the procurement of two sets of domestic polyester production equipment (one set with an annual capacity of 400,000 tons for low-antimony polyester PET and one set with an annual capacity of 250,000 tons for cationic polyester PET), totaling a polyester capacity of 650,000 tons per year. All of the above polyester equipment will be directly connected to the melt spinning production line, and the project will also include the purchase of 16 POY spinning production lines and 8 FDY spinning production lines, forming a production capacity of 650,000 tons per year of polyester filament yarn, along with the construction of public utilities, auxiliary facilities, and environmental protection projects.

Rongsheng Petrochemical subsidiary plans to Invest RMB 67.5 billion Yuan in Jintang new material project

In January, Rongsheng Petrochemical announced that the wholly-owned subsidiary plans to invest in the construction of Jintang new material project, with an estimated total investment of 67.5 billion yuan. This project is to extend the downstream industrial chain of Zhejiang Petrochemical and Zhongjin Petrochemical.

Fujian Gulei MEG and ethylene project breaks ground

On March 28, construction began on the Fujian Gulei 1.5 million mt/year ethylene and 1 million mt/year MEG project. With an estimated investment of 42.07 billion yuan, this project features 14 downstream units and is expected to be operational by 2026.

Yizheng's 3 million tons/year PTA project commences production

On April 11, Sinopec Yizheng Chemical Fiber officially launched its 3 million tons/year PTA? project. This marks a significant step for Sinopec in transforming and upgrading its aromatics industry chain while accelerating the development of advanced new materials. The project is expected to effectively drive and support the downstream trillion-yuan new materials industry.

Zhongtai's PTA-polyester-PSF integrated production unit launches in Xinjiang

On April 19, Zhongtai Petrochemical held the commissioning ceremony for its 250,000 tons/year polyester staple fiber project in the Upper Ku High-Tech Industrial Zone, Korla, Xinjiang. Upon completion, the facility will consist of a 250,000 tons/year polyester production unit and three polyester staple fiber production lines, each with a daily capacity of 200 tons. This makes it the largest polyester staple fiber production base in Northwest China.

The equity structure, investment amount and project scale of Indonesia Beijia Refining and Chemical integration project of Taikun Petrochemical (Indonesia) Co., Ltd. have been adjusted.

In May, Tongkun Group Co., Ltd. issued an announcement on adjusting the equity structure, investment amount and project scale of Indonesia Kalimantan Utara Refining and Chemical integration project of Taikun Petrochemical (Indonesia) Co., Ltd.

The main contents of the project adjustment:

(1) The shareholding ratio of the subject: The original Tongkun Group Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as "Tongkun Shares" or "Company") and Xinfengming Group Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as "Xinfengming") respectively set up wholly owned subsidiaries in Hong Kong, namely Tongkun (Hong Kong) Investment Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as "Tongkun Hong Kong") and Rocky Spark Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Rocky Spark"). Tongkun Hong Kong and Rocky Spark jointly established Huacan International Limited ("Huacan International") in Hong Kong, with Tongkun Hong Kong holding 51% equity and Rocky Spark holding 49% equity. Huacan International and Shanghai Qinghong Industrial Development Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai Qinghong") jointly established Taikun Petrochemical in Indonesia, in which Huacan International holds 90% of the shares, Shanghai Qinghong holds 10% of the shares, adjusted to Tongkun Shares held by Huacan International and Penghao Investment Development Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as "Penghao Investment") held by Tongkun Hong Kong, holding 80% of the shares in total, Xinfengming shares 15% of the shares held by Rocky Spark, and Shanghai Qinghong holds 5% of the shares;

(2) The investment amount is adjusted from USD 8623.71 million of the original project financing amount including VAT (total investment for approval) to USD 5947.62 million of the project financing amount including VAT (total investment for approval).

(3) The scale of the project is adjusted from 16 million tons/year of oil refining, 5.2 million tons/year of p-xylene (PX) capacity and 800kt/year of ethylene to 10 million tons/year of oil refining, 2 million tons/year of p-xylene (PX) capacity and 1.2 million tons/year of ethylene. According to the adjustment of investment amount and project scale, the process route and product scheme involved shall be adjusted accordingly.

Further boil revamping of polyester plant under the influence of environmental protection

In May, the environmental protection inspectorate settled in Zhejiang Province. Two large factories in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang had polyester plants shut down for boiler reconstruction.

On July 4, 2022, the Department of Economy and Information Technology of Zhejiang Province issued the Action Plan for Technological Transformation of Industrial Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction in Zhejiang Province (2022-2024), which proposes that coal-fired boilers below 35 steam tons/hour shall be completely eliminated by the end of 2024.

According to the Action Plan for Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction 2024-2025 issued by the State Council, by the end of 2025, coal-fired boilers and various coal-fired facilities of 35 steam tons/hour or below will be basically eliminated.

Huaxiang Premium Fiber's 1.2 million tons/year polyester filament project to be settled in Jiujiang

On June 26, the signing ceremony of Huaxiang Premium Fiber polyester filament project with an annual output of 1.2 million tons was held in Jiujiang Economic Development Zone. As the first market-oriented project signed and settled by "Oil Head and Tail," Huaxiang High Fiber Polyester Filament Project with an Annual Output of 1.2 Million Tons will strongly promote Jiujiang Petrochemical Industry to open up the chain, extend the chain and supplement the chain, and expand the cluster. It is reported that the total investment of the project is about 10 billion yuan, which is constructed in two phases. After all the projects are completed and reach the production capacity, it is estimated that the annual main business income will reach 15 billion yuan and the annual tax payment will reach 450 million yuan.

Yulong Petrochemical's 1.5 million mt/yr cracker began trial run

On August 15, the turbine test of the ethylene cracking gas compressor of the 1.5 million tons/year cracker of Yulong Petrochemical's Refining and Chemical Integration Project (Phase I) was successful, marking that this largest ethylene plant in China has officially transitioned from the construction stage to the trial production stage.

The Project is implemented in two phases. The Phase I of the project includes annual capacity of 20 million tons of refining, 3 million tons of mixed aromatics, and 3 million tons of ethylene. The production capacity of ethylene glycol in Phase I is 800,000 tons/year, and the production capacity in Phase II is 800,000 tons/year.

PET bottle chip futures officially listed for trading on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange

On August 30, PET bottle chip futures officially began trading on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (hereinafter referred to as Zhengzhou Exchange). Representatives from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, local governments, industry associations, and enterprises participated in the listing event.

The first international standard led by Tongkun was officially released

In August, it was learned from ISO International Organization for Standardization that the international standard ISO 12834:2024 Textile Synthetic Filament Pre-Oriented Yarn (POY) Dynamic Thermal Stress Test Method formulated by Tong Kun as convener was officially released.

This is the first international standard led by Tongkun and a landmark achievement of Tongkun's standardization work. It has achieved a breakthrough in Tongkun's international standards from scratch and is also the first international standard led by Tongxiang, filling the gap in Tongxiang's international standards.

Xinfengming Pinghu Base holds "100-Day Sprint" mobilization conference

On the morning of September 5, the "100-Day Sprint to Ensure the Successful Commissioning of the PTA Phase III Unit by December 18" mobilization conference was grandly held at the site of the Dushan Energy PTA Phase III project.

Changes to PTA delivery brands

On September 26, the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange announced updates to PTA delivery brands. "Dongying Weilian" from Dongying Weilian Chemical Co., Ltd., "Jiatong Energy" from Jiangsu Jiatong Energy Co., Ltd., and "Hengli Huizhou" from Hengli Petrochemical (Huizhou) Co., Ltd. were added as designated PTA delivery brands. Additionally, "Yisheng New Materials" from Zhejiang Yisheng New Materials Co., Ltd. was added as a designated PTA exempt-from-inspection brand.

Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Issuing Guidelines for Equipment Renovation and Technological Upgrading in key industrial sectors

On September 20, the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice on the guidelines for equipment renewal and technological transformation in key industrial fields. According to the notice, in order to implement the decision-making and deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council and strengthen guidance on promoting equipment renewal and technological transformation in the industrial field, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized the compilation of the Guide to Equipment Renewal and Technological Transformation in Key Industrial Fields in accordance with the Action Plan for Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in and the Implementation Plan for Promoting Equipment Renewal in the Industrial Field. "Industrial key industries in the field of equipment renewal and technical transformation guide," the textile industry's equipment renewal objectives, policies and standards, the focus of the direction are as follows:

XIX. Textile industry

1.Equipment update target

Focus on the renewal of old equipment and green upgrading and transformation, focus on the renewal of new spinning, fabric manufacturing and weaving/knitting equipment, and accelerate the application of automation, continuity and green energy-saving equipment; Promote the renewal of complete sets of polymerization, spinning and drafting equipment to further improve the intelligent level of chemical fiber industry; Promote the automatic transportation and distribution system of setting machine, dyeing machine and dye auxiliary agent, and improve the energy conservation, emission reduction and green digitalization level of printing and dyeing industry. By 2027, the production efficiency of cotton textile industry will be significantly improved, the replacement rate of polyester filament equipment in chemical fiber industry will be further improved, and the comprehensive production cost of printing and dyeing industry will be reduced by 5%-10%. It is estimated that the whole industry will complete the renewal of more than 250,000 sets of equipment, driving the investment of 250 billion yuan.

2.?Basis for policies and standards

The main policy and standard basis includes but is not limited to GB/T 37393 - 2019 General Technical Requirements for Digital Workshop, GB/T41257-2022 Functional Safety Requirements for Digital Workshop, GB/T43018.1-2023 Interconnection and Interoperability of Textile Equipment-Part 1: General Technical Requirements, FZ/T01002-2010 Calculation Method and Basic Quota of Comprehensive Energy Consumption of Printing and Dyeing Enterprises, etc.

3.?Key directions

1. Cotton textile equipment It mainly includes spinning frame, blowing-carding unit, drawing frame, automatic winder and other cotton spinning equipment; rotor spinning and other short-process spinning equipment; air jet loom, rapier loom, sizing machine and warping machine and other equipment.

2. Chemical fiber filament equipment Mainly including high-speed spinning machine, texturing machine, drafting machine, setting machine, dryer, water jet loom and drawing-in machine weaving equipment, such as the transformation of 15 chemical fiber staple fiber production lines.

3. Fabric dyeing and finishing equipment It mainly includes washing machine, dyeing machine, digital printing machine, setting machine, circular knitting machine (including hosiery machine), warp knitting machine, computerized flat knitting machine and other equipment, and 1500 production lines have been reconstructed.

4. Industrial operating systems In accordance with the principle of "fully promoting the upgrading of mature and available products and gradually replacing basically available products," driving the update and iteration of industrial operating system products such as Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, embedded software, and industrial protocols.

5. Industrial software Following the principle of "replacing batches of mature products," updating and iterating software in research and development design, production and manufacturing, business management, and operation and maintenance services.

Zhongyuan Dahua plant resumes production

On September 27, the DMO esterification tower at Zhongyuan Dahua's 200,000 mt/year MEG plant (formerly Puyang Yongjin) fed oxygen and produced crude MEG, with full process integration and on-spec MEG achieved by September 29. Then the plant gradually ramped up operating rate. Zhongyuan Dahua merged with Puyang Yongjin in 2022, using coal-to-MEG technology developed by Henan Coal Chemical Group and Tongliao GEM Chemical.

Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics successfully pilots "Biomass Catalytic Conversion to Monoethylene Glycol Technology"

On October 17th, the research team led by Academician Zhang Tao, Researcher Zheng Mingyuan, and Researcher Wang Aiqin from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Zhongke Boyi Jin (Zhengzhou) New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., had their "Thousand-ton-scale Biomass Catalytic Conversion Technology for Monoethylene Glycol Production" evaluated and approved by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation. This technology pioneered a novel one-step catalytic conversion route from biomass sugar to monoethylene glycol, developed a complete technological suite for producing monoethylene glycol from biomass sugar at a ton scale. It successfully bridged the gap from basic research discoveries to thousand-ton scale application in biomass catalytic conversion for high-selectivity monoethylene glycol production. The comprehensive technological level was unanimously deemed to have reached international leading standards, and the technological achievement was approved by the evaluation committee.

CNCEC (Inner Mongolia) New Materials starts production

On the morning of October 18th, CNCEC (Inner Mongolia) New Materials Co., Ltd. successfully completed the full process flow for its 300,000 tons/year coal-to-MEG project, producing polyester-grade MEG. The project's coal-to-MEG production process utilizes a HighChem synthesis gas method for MEG production, with gasification technology employing the Choren dry powder coal gasification process.

Environmental impact assessment of the green differentiated fiber construction project of Zhejiang Shengyou Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd. with an annual output of 1.2 million tons

On October 21, Jiaxing Ecological Environment Bureau planned to make an announcement of approval opinions on the EIA documents of Zhejiang Shengyou Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd. with an annual output of 1.2 million tons of green differential fiber construction project. The main works of the construction project include: purchasing 4 sets of polyester devices, setting up 42 filament production lines and supporting 80 texturing machines, forming an annual capacity of 1.2 million tons of green differential fiber materials and 3,168 tons of acetaldehyde recovery.

Zhejiang Hengyi Resources Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. was established

On November 5, Zhejiang Hengyi Resource Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. was established with the legal representative of Qiu Yibo and the registered capital of RMB 100 million Yuan. Among them, the equity panoramic penetration map shows that the company is wholly owned by Zhejiang Hengyi Petrochemical Co., Ltd., which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hengyi Petrochemical Co., Ltd.

In addition, on the afternoon of November 7, the relevant responsible person of Zhejiang Hengyi Resource Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. came to Jiangling, Hubei Province to have an informal discussion with relevant projects and hold a signing ceremony. At the signing ceremony, Zhejiang Hengyi Resources Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. signed projects with Jiangling County Development Group and Jiangling County Economic Development Zone respectively.

Sichuan Zhengdakai project surpasses 80% completion

In November, the first phase of Sichuan Zhengdakai's project has reached over 80% completion, with the syngas preparation unit 93% complete and the MEG unit 78% complete. Most equipment installation is finished, and pipeline installation is underway. The project, utilizing Puqing Chemical's MEG and dimethyl carbonate (DMC) technology, is designed to produce 1.2 million mt of MEG and 100,000 mt of electronic-grade DMC annually, using natural gas as a raw material. Key milestones include an investment agreement signed in November 2021, the establishment of Sichuan Zhengdakai New Material Co., Ltd. in December 2021, an EPC contract signed in November 2022, groundbreaking in January 2023, and the successful ignition and commissioning of the distributed energy system in October 2024.

Revisions to PTA futures business rules, futures contracts, and delivery management measures

.On November 19, the PTA Futures Business Rules, PTA Futures Contract, and Futures Delivery Management Measures of the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange were revised and approved during the 18th meeting of the eighth council of the exchange. The revisions have been reported to the China Securities Regulatory Commission and are now officially published. These updates apply to PTA futures contracts starting with TA2510 and subsequent contracts, effective immediately upon release.

Rongsheng Petrochemical and Saudi Arabian Oil Company sign framework agreement to promote SASREF expansion

Beijing, November 19-Rongsheng Petrochemical (Singapore) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rongsheng Petrochemical Company Limited ("Rongsheng Petrochemical"), and Saudi Arabian Oil Company, one of the world's leading integrated energy and chemical companies, and its subsidiary SASREF, signed a Development Framework Agreement in Beijing, China, paving the way for the expansion of SASREF in Jubail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Tripartite Agreement provides for a cooperative mechanism and planning for the design and development of the project, with the aim of expanding SASREF's refining and petrochemical production capacity while promoting international cooperation.

Prior to this, Rongsheng Petrochemical and Saudi Arabian Oil Company announced in April that they had signed a Cooperation Framework Agreement, planning to establish a joint venture in SASREF and make major investments in the petrochemical industry in Saudi Arabia and China. Preliminary documents relating to the Development Framework Agreement were signed in September.

The SASREF expansion project is located in the Jubail Industrial Zone on the Arabian Gulf Coast in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, which has a good infrastructure and strategic geographical advantages.

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