subject: Aarkstore Enterprise Research Report On Chinese Polyester Chain Industry In 2009 [print this page] Polyester fibers can be divided into filaments and staple fibers. Filaments account for about 62% of polyester fibers and staple fibers account for about 38%. Usually filaments are used by textile enterprises and staple fibers are mixed with cotton. Polyester fibers and cotton yarns compete with each other in the textile industry. They generally occupy 60% and 30%-35% of the textile raw materials respectively.
Besides, since PET is retrievable and easily modified, its application on non-fiber through modifying its characteristic is more and more popular. Now it is broadly applied in the packaging industry, electronic apparatus, health and medical care, architecture, automobiles, etc. And among them, packaging industry is the largest non fiber market and the fastest growing field for PET. In recent years, the market demands for sodas, mineral spring water, tea drinks and edible oil keep increasing forcefully, which enlarges the market demand for the global PET bottles and PET bottle chips and promotes the rapid development of the global polyester industry.
Judging from the current supply of China's Polyester products, the expansion of PET products was relatively fast before 2002. Its production growth rates even surpassed 50% in 1997 and 1999, etc. However, after entering 2002, on one hand, the capacity of the early expansion had gradually met the demand of the market; to some extent, the supply had exceeded the demand. On the other hand, there were obvious shortages of raw materials of PX and PTA, etc. These two factors slowed down the output growth of PET products. The growth rates of PET outputs remained about 10% from 2005 to 2007. In 2007, the output of Chinese PET products exceeded 18 million tons.
As the main raw material for PET products, the outputs of PTA also kept increasing rapidly. Especially after 2003, the output growth of China's PTA products was very high. In 2003 and 2005, the annual growth rates both surpassed 50%. In 2007, the output of China's PTA products surpassed 10 million tons with the growth rate of near 20%. While the growth rate of PX upstream products, is relatively stable. After 2003, the growth rate of the production chain of PX products maintained at 15% to 20%. In 2007, the yearly output of PX products was over 3 million tons with the growth rate near about 20%.
In recent years, with the rapid development of the downstream chemical fiber industry and packaging industry, the total demand for polyester products is gradually increasing. The change of apparent demand for PET products is in step with the growth momentum of PET supplies. Except that the growth rates in 1997 and 1999 surpassed 50%, the basic demands before 2002 maintained at 20% to 30%. However, since 2005, the synthetic fiber industry entered the stage of small profits and the early accumulation brought about by the rapid growth of PET products was gradually digested. Thus the growth rate of the apparent demand for PET products slowed down obviously. In 2006 and 2007, although it revived in a small extent compared with 2005, the growth rate only remained at 10%.
Similarly, having been affected by the slowdown of the demand for PET products, the growth rate of the demand for PTA also slowed down apparently. From 2005 to 2007, the demand for PTA products gradually decreased. In 2007, the growth rate of the demand for PTA products reached lower than 5%.
As the primary product of the polyester chain industry, the growth rate of the demand for PX also fluctuated. In addition to being used to produce PTA products, PX products are also used to produce solvent, spice, printing ink, etc. Therefore, its demand is also affected by the development of other products of chemical industry. Generally speaking, since 1996, the growth rate of apparent demand for PX has been keeping at 10% to 20%. In 2005, the depression of chemical industry resulted in its zero growth, but the demand in 2006 and 2007 revived apparently. In 2007, the demand for PX even reached 40%.
As two important raw products in the polyester chain industry, the changes of imports of PTA and PX are quite different. As China's PTA productivity has gradually released, imports of PTA and its import dependency decrease; bottle neck factors transfer to
