With the great changes in the petrochemical industry pattern, the unsaturated resin industry is undergoing a historic transformation, which is mainly reflected in the following five aspects.
First, scale. The total output of unsaturated resins in mainland China has ranked first in the world for many years. In 2020, the total output will reach 3.42 million tons, exceeding 60% of the global total. In 2021, despite the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, especially due to the extreme shortage of raw material supply, the total output will drop to 3.15 million tons, but this scale is still in the first place in the world. China's unsaturated resin market structure is unique in the world, that is, the market of non-reinforced products and reinforced products are equally divided, that is to say, the total amount of unsaturated resin used in the traditional composite material market is about 1.6 million tons each year, supporting more than The market size of traditional composite products is 4.3 million to 4.6 million tons.
China's unsaturated resin industry is not only huge, but also has a production capacity per unit that far exceeds that of other countries in the world. Outside China, most of the unsaturated resin production enterprises have a single-plant production capacity of 30,000 to 60,000 tons; while in China, the annual output of 100,000 tons has become an entry-level enterprise with an annual output of 200,000 tons. It is becoming more and more standard scale, and there are already 3 enterprises with a single plant with an annual output of 300,000 tons. These giant-level production enterprises not only have a strong comprehensive cost competitive advantage, but also have the ability to independently support the downstream single market.
Such a strong unsaturated resin production capacity is the foundation for Chinese traditional composite material manufacturers to undertake large-scale national infrastructure projects and participate in large-scale international market competition in the future.
It should be pointed out that, whether compared with foreign counterparts or the upstream glass fiber and unsaturated resin industry, the scale of a single plant in the traditional composite material industry is generally small, the industry is scattered, and there is a lack of a large annual turnover of more than 1 billion or even 2 billion yuan of large-scale composite product manufacturers, this situation will go on like this, it is very unfavorable for the development of the traditional composite material industry.
Third, automation. In the past 10 years, the most significant change in China's unsaturated resin industry is the full realization of the basic automation of the production process. DCS has become the standard system for all unsaturated resin manufacturers. The improvement of the automation level not only greatly reduces the production personnel, reduces the labor intensity, and improves the response ability to deal with sudden safety accidents, but also the most meaningful and valuable aspect is to provide stable products for unsaturated resin production enterprises The technical means of quality and the stability of product batches have generally been greatly improved, providing strong support for the large-scale use of mechanized and automated production equipment by traditional composite product manufacturers.
Fourth, standardization. In the development process of the traditional composite products industry in the past decades, an obvious defect is the lack of complete technical standards for products, especially in the unsaturated resin industry. In most application fields, the product standards for unsaturated resins are Blank, which has caused huge confusion in the market, led to huge confusion in downstream industries, especially traditional composite materials industry companies, and brought them huge difficulties in selecting materials and designing products. At present, this situation is improving, and a large number of technical standards for unsaturated resin products related to the performance of traditional composite products are being formulated, ranging from methyl ethyl ketone peroxide to continuous winding pipe resin, refrigerated truck box board resin, machine continuous sheet resin to Unsaturated resin varieties used in composite products with large output in the current market, such as pultrusion and braided power pipe resin, it is particularly worth mentioning that the "Limit Standard for Prohibited and Restricted Substances of Unsaturated Polyester Resins" has been formulated for the first time. Incorporating health standards into the product standard system provides a basis for the government to rectify some illegal acts of adding toxic and harmful solvents to unsaturated resin products to obtain illegal profits on a large scale in the future.
Fifth, normalization. Safe production, environmental protection and paying taxes according to law are the three major norms of the unsaturated resin industry. From the perspective of the entire industry chain, these three are also the normative guidelines for the traditional composite materials industry.