In order to protect against 2019-nCoV, the demand for masks has surged in recent years. The supply of masks is in short supply in many places in China. With the emergency production of mask enterprises, the demand for non-woven fabric and other parts is also increasing. Among them, PP high melting fiber is the best choice for non-woven fabric. PP, as the basic raw material for non-woven fabric production, also has a demand gap. Meanwhile, the market and supply and demand of PVC (PVC mask wrapped with micelles and nose strip of mask), the packaging material PE, are also concerned by the industry and the whole society.
High Density of Demand for High-Melting Fiber Polypropylene
The downstream demand of polypropylene mainly includes drawing, injection molding, film, fiber and pipe, accounting for 31%, 29%, 20%, 10% and 7% of the downstream demand respectively. The overall demand growth of downstream application of polypropylene is basically in pace with the global economic growth. In the past five years, the domestic demand growth of polypropylene is 8.94%, 16.47%, 5.92%, 2.87% and 9.14%, with an average growth rate of 8.67%.
At present, the main demand of medical mask is PP, which is used to spray and melt non-woven fabric. This material can also be used to produce surgical clothing, isolation clothing, infusion bottles and syringes for infusion and injection, etc. In response to the heavy task of prevention and control and the demand gap of polypropylene, many petrochemical enterprises urgently restart the production line during the China’s New Year holiday, with full production capacity and overtime to alleviate the shortage of medical materials such as medical masks and high prices.
Petrochemical Enterprise Increase the Production on Special Plastics
LU Dapeng, the director of Sinopec information office and representative of company, promised that during the anti-epidemic period, the price of relevant raw materials for medical and health supplies produced by Sinopec would not increase. In addition, the production capacity would continue to be adjusted. To be more specific, the raw materials for medical and health supplies would be prioritized to ensure high-quality, sufficient and timely supply.
Since the outbreak of 2019-nCoV, 17 sub-companies of Sinopec Group have produced 65000 tons of medical and health resin raw materials, an increase of 12000 tons compared with the original plan, meeting the production needs of 51 domestic medical and health material customers, such as Shandong Dongwei University. Meanwhile, it will produce 95000 tons in February, 30000 tons more than in January.
Moreover, it will take full the advantages of chemical sales network channels, timely meet the needs of downstream customers, help the surrounding medical and health material manufacturers to resume production in advance, ensure the supply of raw materials, and vigorously alleviate the shortage of medical and health materials caused by the soaring demand.
As the main manufacturer of PP melt blown special materials for respirator cloth in China, Daoan Co., Ltd. also worked overtime during the China’s New Year to schedule production plan in time. It starts full horsepower and full line production, so as to guarantee the demand of respirator cloth materials as much as possible.
Dalian Petrochemical, a subsidiary of CNPC, also said that the company would steadily open three full-scale units to full load production of high-end medical non-woven raw material h39s-3 polypropylene products. From the beginning of 2020 to January 21, Dalian Petrochemical Company produced 11700 tons of h39s-3 products, an increase of nearly 18% year on year. On January 22, more than 600 tons of h39s-3 products were delivered from Dalian Petrochemical Company to Foshan medical non-woven fabric manufacturer in Guangdong Province.
The Overall Supply of Polyproline is Sufficient and Price is Temporarily Stable
In the face of such demand, the direct of of Hengli Group, a private petrochemical group, said that in 2019, the price of polypropylene for masks was about 8000 RMB / ton, but now it is down to 7000 RMB / ton, "polypropylene has not been in short supply, which has not driven up the price", and the prices are basically stable.
As of February 3, the main offer price of T30S, the national producer and trader of PP, was about 7483.33 RMB / ton, a decrease of 0.44% compared with the initial standard level of the month. Most of PP for other applications are also subject to varying degrees of adjustment and reduction. In addition, due to the commitment of no increase in production and price of petrochemical plants, we can see that in the near future, the price of PP, including melt blown PP, as the raw material of non-woven fabric, may maintain stable and sufficient supply.
However, the price of non-woven fabrics has increased, which is attributed to the increase of freight and labor costs. Due to the impact of the China’s New Year holiday and 2019-nCOV prevention work, some enterprises delayed the start of construction and reduced the number of workers. The decrease of drivers and transport vehicles in logistics and transportation enterprises, as well as the prohibition of high-speed traffic in some areas, make it difficult to find a single logistics vehicle in the near future and make cross provincial transportation more difficult.
Limited Impact on Other Related-Rubber and -Plastics Market
The price of PVC, one of the main materials of medical plastics, has no obvious change during this period. In addition, during China’s New Year holiday and the prevention and control work, the transportation of PVC also caused obstacles in warehousing and transportation, resulting in some difficulties in the sourcing transportation and supply of PVC manufacturers. It is expected that the inventory will be increased around the Lantern Festival.
As a kind of packaging material commonly used in plastic bags and composite bags, polyethylene PE is not out of stock temporarily in this prevention and control work. The price was not significantly affected by this event. According to the data of PE drawing grade materials from SunSirs, the 3 major varieties of polyethylene, LLDPE, LDPE and HDPE, all showed a stable trend during the China’ New Year. However, due to the impact of holidays, petrochemical inventory will increase significantly, and import goods will also be concentrated in port. Hence, the market supply will increase significantly after China’s New Year. The contradiction between supply and demand in the market will intensify again, and the price may have a downward trend.
In addition, the General Administration of Customs released information on the import of medical materials on January 31. From January 24 to 30, China imported 16139 batches of prevention and control materials, 59.178 million pieces, worth 290 million yuan. Among them, there are 56.228 million masks.
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