During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China's polyurethane industry has adhered to innovation-driven development and green, low-carbon principles. It has not only consolidated its global leadership in industrial scale but also achieved simultaneous leaps in quality and efficiency, technological innovation, structural optimization, and sustainable development capabilities.

Scale Advantages Continually Strengthened; Industrial Security and Autonomy Ensured

Throughout the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China's polyurethane industry has expanded steadily, maintaining its position as the world's largest producer and consumer. The industry's core raw material production capacity accounts for over 40% of the global total, signifying that China's polyurethane industrial chain has reached new heights in scale advantages and supporting capabilities. The comprehensive industrial ecosystem has also significantly enhanced the autonomy and controllability of the industrial and supply chains.

Maintaining Global Leadership in Core Raw Materials China continues to lead globally in the technological advancement, plant scale, energy consumption control, and intrinsic safety levels of isocyanate products. By 2025, China's production capacity for methyl diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) is projected to reach 4.99 million tons, while toluene diisocyanate (TDI) capacity is expected to hit 1.99 million tons, further solidifying its position as the world's largest producer and supplier of isocyanates. Propylene oxide capacity will surge from 3.37 million tons in 2020 to 8.15 million tons by 2025. The polyether polyol industry will achieve simultaneous leaps in both scale and quality, with capacity expanding from approximately 5.98 million tons in 2020 to over 10 million tons by 2025, while the proportion of high-end products continues to rise.

Expanding Application Fields with Significant Contributions from Emerging Sectors

China's polyurethane product consumption remains the world's largest, with total consumption projected to reach 14.19 million tons by 2025. This provides robust material support for downstream industries including home furnishings, building energy efficiency, transportation, and new energy.

Traditional foam products maintain a solid foothold in markets like building insulation, cold chain logistics, furniture, apparel, and automotive, while upgrading toward green, high-performance solutions. Environmentally friendly products dominate the CASE (Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants, Elastomers) sector. Polyurethane materials are rapidly penetrating strategic emerging industries like new energy vehicles, wind/solar power, and biomedicine, with a surge in high-end applications injecting robust momentum into industry growth.

Abundant Technological Innovations, Steadily Enhanced Core Competencies

The entire industry has consistently prioritized technological innovation as the core driver of development, achieving a series of breakthroughs in key processes, green technologies, and high-end product development.

Represented by Wanhua Chemical, China's isocyanate manufacturing technology continues to lead globally, with major breakthroughs in green circular technologies. Companies including Wanhua Chemical, Sinochem Dongda, Yinuowei, Longhua New Materials, and Huai'an Bader have made substantial progress in technologies such as continuous polyether polyol processes and novel catalysts. Research and application of green, low-carbon raw materials like bio-based polyols and CO₂-based polyols have accelerated at firms like Changhua Chemical, Skore, and Puli. The production process for propylene oxide has diversified, with proprietary technologies achieving successive industrial breakthroughs.

Green high-end additives have achieved remarkable progress in R&D and industrialization. Products such as bio-based additives, high-end polyurethane chain extenders, and high-performance organosilicon surfactants produced by Xiangyuan New Materials, Meiside Chemical, and Hengguang New Materials have reached internationally advanced levels, enhancing critical segments of the industrial chain.

Industrial Structure Continues to Optimize; High-Quality Enterprises Expand

Industry development increasingly prioritizes quality, efficiency, and structural optimization. Industrial concentration steadily rises, fostering a cohort of internationally competitive leading enterprises and specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative SMEs. The emergence of national manufacturing single-champion enterprises signifies the sector's global leadership in specific product domains.

Industrial layout grows more scientific, with key regions forming several distinctive, synergistic polyurethane industrial clusters that optimize resource allocation and drive regional economic growth.

Environmental Protection and Smart Manufacturing Advance in Tandem, Strengthening Green Foundations

The entire industry actively responds to the national “dual carbon” strategy, positioning green development and digital transformation as fundamental pathways to enhance sustainable development capabilities.

Green manufacturing yields significant results. Environmentally friendly blowing agents see widespread adoption; solvent-free, water-based polyurethane synthetic leather technology achieves large-scale industrialization; low-odor, low-VOC product technologies are successfully promoted. Energy and material consumption continue to decline, while clean production levels steadily improve.

Smart manufacturing advances deeply. The deep application of management systems such as production execution systems and enterprise resource planning systems has improved operational efficiency. The construction of automated production lines and intelligent warehousing and logistics systems has accelerated, and progress has been made in smart factory pilot demonstrations. The exploration of artificial intelligence technology to assist in new material research and development has injected new vitality into industry innovation.

As an integrated internet platform providing benchmark prices, on January 12th, the SunSirs TDI benchmark price was 14,666.67 RMB/ton, remaining unchanged from the beginning of the month.

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