In early December, Ningbo Wanhua Polyurethane Co., Ltd. and the Second Design Institute of Chemical Industry held a signing ceremony for nitrobenzene, aniline and nitric acid engineering design contracts. Ningbo Wanhua's 360,000 tons/year aniline plant construction was officially launched. All completed and put into production. The largest aniline user in China, Wanhua, decided to install its own aniline device, which will make the aniline market, which is currently facing a serious oversupply conflict, become more serious.
With the rapid growth of domestic aniline downstream market, especially the demand for MDI and rubber auxiliaries, plus some domestic chlor-alkali enterprises supporting aniline equipment to digest by-product hydrogen, an upsurge of aniline construction began in China from 2005 to 2006, 2007. From January to November of the year, there are still many sets of aniline equipment built and put into operation. In 2006, the domestic aniline production capacity was 1.14 million tons (including the 160,000 tons/year aniline unit that Shanghai Lianheng Polyurethane Co., Ltd. provided). In 2007, it added another 300,000 tons of production capacity. As of the end of November 2007, domestic aniline production capacity increased to 1.44 million tons per year.
In 2006, the domestic aniline utilization rate was not very high. The output was about 600,000 tons. The consumption structure was 192,000 tons of MDI consumption, the consumption of rubber chemicals was 123,000 tons, and the consumption of other areas was about 355,000 tons. In 2007, the output of aniline was estimated to be about 750,000 tons. Due to the rapid expansion of domestic aniline production capacity, domestic aniline in 2007 has shown a serious situation of oversupply. Although the current soaring price of crude oil has led to a rise in raw material benzene prices, due to weak market demand, domestic aniline prices have been operating at a low level from January to November of 2007 and are currently maintained at around RMB 10,800, and there is a downward trend.
According to the forecast of market demand, the domestic demand for aniline in MDI production in 2007 was approximately 220,000 tons. Although there are many MDI devices that have been built or planned to be built in China at present, Unicon Chemical, Bayer Shanghai, Huntsman and BASF Chongqing are all supporting aniline devices on their own and they do not need to purchase aniline from the market; Wanhua Group plans to be in Ningbo in 2010. Invest and build 300,000 tons/year of MDI device, and then need about 460,000 tons of aniline. As regards rubber additives, after the rapid expansion of domestic rubber additives in the past few years, most of the products have experienced severe oversupply, and the growth rate of production capacity of new projects in the future will slow down significantly. It is estimated that the consumption of aniline in this area will be about 150,000 in 2007. Tons, the amount of aniline consumed in 2010 was approximately 180,000 tons. In other areas of aniline consumption, dyes, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and organic intermediate products are all oversupply, coupled with increasingly stringent state environmental protection requirements, reductions in export tax rebates, and EU REACH regulations, and the slow growth of aniline consumption in the future. About 370,000 tons of aniline was consumed in other areas in the year, and the amount of aniline consumed in 2010 was approximately 430,000 tons.
Assuming that the Wanhua aniline plant and the planned MDI plant will be successfully completed and put into production in 2010, Wanhua will only need to purchase 100,000 tons of aniline to satisfy the demand. In 2007, Wanhua is expected to consume about 220,000 tons of aniline, considering other fields. Compared with 2007, the consumption of aniline was increased by 90,000 tons in 2010. In 2010, the actual quantity of aniline was reduced by 30,000 tons compared with 2007. At the end of November 2007, Jilin Cornel built 150,000 tons/year of new phase and put into production, and then will carry out the second phase of construction, eventually reaching 300,000 tons/year of production capacity, plus 2007 Huayang, Jiangsu Yangnong and several others The new construction and expansion projects of enterprises have not yet reached full capacity. If there are no other channels for digestion, the Wanhua aniline project will be put into production. After that, domestic aniline production capacity of 1.28 million tons/year will compete for 720,000 tons of market share. Domestic aniline will be seriously Oversupply situation.
In the face of the upcoming crisis, the domestic aniline industry should take precautions and actively seek effective countermeasures. The first is to delay project construction. At present, relevant domestic departments and enterprises should face the reality, delay and cancel unreasonable aniline project construction that is not competitive, and actively avoid market risks. The second is to develop downstream products. In addition to MDI, downstream products of aniline are limited in the amount of aniline consumed by other products. It is recommended that domestic large-scale aniline manufacturers actively negotiate cooperation with foreign companies or independently develop supporting MDI production facilities; some small and medium-sized aniline manufacturers should increase organic intermediates, The development of dyes, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides forms an upstream and downstream integrated development model. The third is to eliminate backward devices. At present, there are nearly 30 aniline manufacturers in China, of which only 3 to 4 have an annual production capacity of more than 100,000 tons, and many companies have annual production capacities of only 15,000 to 30,000 tons. Some manufacturers have problems in terms of safety and environmental protection. It is recommended that some backward small-scale aniline devices be eliminated as soon as possible to ease the contradiction between supply and demand in the domestic market. The fourth is to expand the foreign market. The aniline resources in neighboring Asian countries are not abundant, especially in countries such as South Korea and India. The demand for aniline and its downstream products is relatively large. It is recommended that domestic production enterprises increase their efforts in foreign market development and increase exports of aniline and its downstream products.