Serious shortage of EVA resin for agricultural film

"If it wasn't earlier that more than 2,000 tons of Ethylene Vinyl Acetate Resin PelletsEVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer) resin was purchased at a time for more than 14,000 yuan (t price, the same below), it would be miserable now, not only that the price rose to nearly 17,000 yuan, but also The supply is in short supply, and sometimes it is not always possible to buy goods with money.” Liu Hongjian, the Minister of Mining and Supply of Tianjin No. 2 Plastics Factory, said in an interview with reporters recently. Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate.

Liu Hongjian's words reflect the real situation in which domestic production of EVA resin Ethylene Vinyl Acetate Resin Pellets for agricultural membranes has been insufficient for many years. This situation has not been fundamentally improved even after the highly-requested 200,000-tonne/year EVA plant of Yangzi Petrochemical-BASF Co., Ltd. was put into operation.

The production of agricultural film has a higher requirement for the VA (vinyl acetate) content of EVA resin Ethylene Vinyl Acetate For Adhesive, and cannot be higher than 40%. Generally, products with a VA content of about 14% are used. It is understood that at present, China's industrial EVA production enterprises, only Yang-Pak Corporation and Beijing Dongfang Petrochemical Company organic chemical plant and other individual companies, the annual production capacity of 240,000 tons. However, in the EVA produced by domestic companies, less than 10,000 tons of plastic film can be used for the production of agricultural film last year. In 2006, the actual production of Yangzhou-Baba EVA membrane material (V4110F) was only 8,000 tons, and Beijing Oriental did not produce EVA resin for agricultural membranes this year. Due to the huge supply and demand gap, the ex-factory prices of V4110J, V5110J and Beijing East's EVA18-3 have all reached 17,000 yuan.

Why is the market price so high and the demand so strong that the output of EVA resin for domestic companies is so low? The reporter learned from the survey that the overall shortage of domestic EVA and the profitability of EVA resin for plastic film is lower than that of other EVA products.

In fact, China's EVA products have always been in a state of shortage. From 1993 Beijing East Construction of the 40,000 tons/year EVA unit until the end of 2005, domestic Yangba Company built a 200,000 tons/year EVA unit. The consumption of EVA has been on an upward trend. By 2006, the national EVA consumption had increased from 31,900 tons in 1993 to 550,000 tons, with an average annual increase of more than 20%. It is expected that the domestic EVA demand may exceed 570,000 tons in 2007, and the gap between supply and demand will further increase. This led to an overall price increase for EVA products. Currently, the price of foamed EVA has increased from 15,000 yuan in early May to 17,500 yuan. Boric Acid Flakes.

While the domestic production of EVA was insufficient, the supply of imported EVA was not sufficient in previous years. Due to the tight global VA supply, forcing some large-scale EVA devices to reduce their load or even stop production, the global EVA supply was tight, and the external quotation generally soared from 1,500 US dollars in May to more than 1,900 U.S. dollars today. Coupled with the strong demand growth in the South Asian markets such as India and Pakistan in the past two years, some enterprises that originally exported to China chose to export to other regions, which ultimately led to tight supply of domestic EVA. For example, Korea Hanwha exported more than 10,000 tons of EVA film to China in the past, and this year it has only supplied 3,000 tons. Formosa Plastics and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. in Taiwan, Taiwan, and Taiwan also significantly reduced their exports to the mainland market.

In addition, there are specific technical requirements for EVA resins for membranes, and most companies are unwilling to produce in the current market environment, further exacerbating the contradiction between the supply and demand of domestic EVA resins for agricultural membranes. According to Zhu Qidong, director of the information department of organic chemical plant of Beijing Dongfang Petrochemical Company, although in theory, EVA resins with VA content below 40% can be used for agricultural film production, in fact, in recent years, in addition to companies like Beijing Huadun, etc. The VA content of most EVA resins used for film production is between 9% and 18%. Among them, film material (EVA14-2) with a VA content of 14% and a MI (melt index) of less than 1.0 g/10 min is most suitable for the production of agricultural films, and strict control of these two indexes requires higher technical requirements and therefore The operation of ordinary EVA film materials is difficult, the probability of unqualified products is high, and the product cost is high. Beijing Dongfang stopped the production of EVA film material (EVA14-2) which was required by the production process last year due to the aging of its equipment. Now the main product is EVA18-3 foaming material.

In addition to technical reasons, market factors are also an important aspect. According to Wang Junqiang, an EVA distributor of Yang-Pak Company, the domestic agricultural film companies have limited success due to poor performance, and the counter-offer prices are generally low at the time of purchase. At present, the ex-factory price and market price of foaming materials are generally around 500 yuan higher than that of film materials. Under such circumstances, it is clear that better foaming materials companies in the market are more willing to produce.

EVA is an important additive resin for middle and high grade agricultural films. The growth rate is very prominent in the demand for various EVA varieties in China. The amount of EVA resin in foreign agricultural films is generally more than 50%, and some are even 100% EVA plastic film. However, because China's EVA has been producing less than necessary for many years, the price is relatively high, and farmers' purchasing power is limited, they are currently used only in high-grade films or special plastic films such as three or more layers of coextruded composite films, and are used as functional additives. Use, the general ratio is only 10% to 40%, only Beijing Huadun, Tianjin Second Plastic, Shandong Rixin and other enterprises EVA resin content of some products reached 70%. Even so, the annual production capacity of high-grade functional films in China has reached 300,000 tons, and the annual output exceeds 220,000 tons. Calculated according to the lowest 10% of EVA resin in high-grade functional films, the annual demand for EVA resin also exceeds 22,000 tons. Pvc Resin

According to the requirements for the development of high-grade plastic film, the proportion of comprehensive EVA resin increases year by year, and the use of high-grade agricultural film grows by 12%. It is expected that in the next 5 to 10 years, China will use more than 250,000 tons of EVA resin for agricultural film every year. If the construction of domestic EVA plants cannot keep pace, it is expected that the agricultural film industry in China will face the shortage of EVA film materials for a long time to come.