China's No.1 chemical province

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China's chemical industry is moving from scale to refinement, and chemical companies are transforming and developing, which will inevitably bring more products with higher refinement rates. The emergence of such products will have a certain impact on the transparency of market information, and will also give rise to a new round of industrial upgrading and industrial agglomeration. In this article, Youlian Foreign Trade will take stock of the chemical location industries in China's chemical industry due to historical and resource endowment reasons, and see where these industries are concentrated.

1. China's largest chemical consumption place: Guangdong Province

Guangdong Province is China's largest chemical consumption market base, mainly based on the huge GDP stock scale. Guangdong Province's total GDP reached 12.91 trillion yuan, ranking first among Chinese provinces, driving the vigorous development of the consumer end of the chemical industry chain. At present, in China's chemical logistics pattern, about 80% or more of chemical products have a logistics pattern from north to south, and one of the important terminal target markets is Guangdong Province.

Guangdong Province currently focuses on planning and developing five major petrochemical bases, all of which are equipped with large-scale integrated refining and chemical units. Chemicals in Guangdong Province have basically achieved industrial chain development, thereby increasing the refinement rate and supply scale of products. In addition, the market supply gap still needs to be supplemented by northern cities such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang, while high-end new materials products need to be supplemented by imported resources.

2. China's largest local refinery gathering place: Shandong Province

As we all know, Shandong Province is the largest local refinery gathering area in China, and Dongying, Shandong is also the city with the highest concentration of local oil refineries in the world. At present, Shandong gathers more than 60 local oil refineries. At its peak, Shandong Province had nearly 100 local oil refineries. According to incomplete statistical data, as of mid-2023, Shandong Province's primary crude oil processing capacity is 220 million tons/year, ethylene production capacity exceeds 3 million tons/year, and propylene production capacity exceeds 8 million tons/year.

The development of Shandong's refining industry began in the late 1990s. Kenli Petrochemical was the first independent refinery in Shandong Province, and then Dongming Petrochemical (formerly Dongming County Refining Company) was established. Starting in 2004, it was a period of rapid development of independent refineries in Shandong Province. Many local oil refineries invested and started construction. Some companies originated from urban-rural cooperation transformation, and some companies were transformed from local oil refining.

Since 2010, Shandong local oil refineries have been favored by state-owned enterprises. Hongrun Petrochemical, Dongying Refinery, Haihua, Changyi Petrochemical, Shandong Huaxing, Zhenghe Petrochemical, Qingdao Anbang, Jinan Great Wall Refinery, Jinan Chemical No. 2 Refinery and other enterprises have been acquired or controlled by state-owned enterprises, accelerating the rapid development of local refineries.

3. China's largest pharmaceutical finished product production site: Jiangsu Province

According to information from the State Food and Drug Administration, there are 5,065 API and preparation production enterprises in the country, of which Jiangsu Province has the largest number of pharmaceutical enterprises. Jiangsu Province has a total of 4,067 related pharmaceutical intermediates industry enterprises, making it the largest finished pharmaceutical production area in China. Pharmaceutical manufacturing is an important source of GDP in Jiangsu Province. In 2020, pharmaceuticals contributed more than 400 billion yuan to the GDP of Jiangsu Province.

From the perspective of different cities in Jiangsu Province, Xuzhou is one of the largest comprehensive pharmaceutical product production bases in China, and also a production base for central nervous system drugs and insulin. It has domestic first-class pharmaceutical industry leading enterprises such as Jiangsu Enhua, Jiangsu Wanbang, and Jiangsu Jiuxu, and nearly 60 national high-tech enterprises in the field of biomedicine. It has established national R&D platforms in four professional fields such as tumor biotherapy and medicinal plant function development, and more than 70 provincial R&D institutions.

From the perspective of the comprehensive strength of pharmaceutical companies, Yangtze River Pharmaceutical Group in Taizhou, Jiangsu has topped the list of China's top 100 pharmaceutical industries in the past few years and is one of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers in the country.

4. China's largest electronic chemical production base: Guangdong Province

According to statistical data, Guangdong Province is China's largest electronic industry production base. Driven by its consumer demand, Guangdong Province is also China's largest electronic chemical production and consumption base. Guangdong Province produces hundreds of types of electronic chemicals, with the most complete product range and the highest product refinement rate. Not only are there the most complete types of wet electronic chemicals, but also electronic-grade new materials, thin film materials, and electronic-grade coating materials.

For example, Zhuhai Zhubo Electronic Materials Co., Ltd. is an important representative manufacturer of electronic-grade glass fiber cloth, low dielectric and ultra-fine glass fiber yarn. Changxin Resin (Guangdong) Co., Ltd. mainly produces electronic-grade amino resins, PTT and other products. Zhuhai Changxian New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. mainly produces electronic-grade flux, environmentally friendly cleaning agents, varnish and other products.

5. China's largest polyester fiber production site: Zhejiang Province

It is understood that Zhejiang Province is China's largest polyester fiber production base, with more than 30 polyester chip production companies, with a total production capacity of more than 4.3 million tons/year, polyester filament production scale of more than 30 million tons/year, polyester staple fiber production scale of more than 1.7 million tons/year, in addition to many downstream textile weaving companies, which have a very obvious influence in the polyester, chemical fiber, textile and other industries nationwide.

Among the chemical companies in Zhejiang Province, representative companies include Tongkun Group, Hengyi Group, Xinfengming Group, Zhejiang Dushan Energy, etc. They are the largest polyester chemical fiber production companies in the country, and they have also started and grown from Zhejiang.

6. China's largest coal chemical production base: Shaanxi Province

According to statistics, Shaanxi Province is China's largest coal chemical production base, with more than 7 coal-to-olefin production enterprises, and the production scale of coal-to-olefin in Shaanxi Province exceeds 4.5 million tons/year. The production scale of coal-to-ethylene glycol reaches 2.6 million tons/year.

Shaanxi Province has China's largest coal chemical park, Shaanxi Yushen Industrial Park, which gathers many coal chemical production enterprises. Representative enterprises include Shaanxi Yanchang Zhongmei Yulin, Shaanxi Yulin Energy Chemical, Pucheng Clean Energy, Yulin Shenhua, etc.

7. China's largest salt chemical production base: Xinjiang

According to relevant statistics, Xinjiang is China's largest salt chemical production base, among which the representative enterprise is Xinjiang Zhongtai Chemical, with a PVC production capacity of 1.72 million tons/year, which is China's largest PVC enterprise, and a caustic soda production capacity of 1.47 million tons/year, which is also China's largest.

Relevant data show that Xinjiang has proven salt reserves of about 50 billion tons, second only to Qinghai Province. Compared with sea salt in the mainland, lake salt in Xinjiang has high grade and good quality, which is suitable for deep processing and refining, and produces high value-added salt chemical products, such as sodium, bromine, magnesium, etc. It is the best raw material for the production of related chemicals.

It is also worth mentioning the development of potash in Lop Nur. Lop Nur Salt Lake is located in Ruoqiang County in the northeast of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, with a total area of ​​more than 10,000 square kilometers. The proven potash resources here are about 300 million tons, accounting for more than half of the potash resources in the country.

It is understood that many chemical companies in the country have entered Xinjiang for investigation and chose to invest in chemical projects in Xinjiang. On the one hand, they have taken a fancy to the absolute advantage of Xinjiang's raw material resources, and on the other hand, Xinjiang's relevant policy support is more attractive.

8. China's largest natural gas chemical production site: Chongqing

It is understood that Chongqing has extended multiple natural gas chemical industry chains with its rich natural gas resources and has become the largest natural gas chemical production city in the country.

Changshou District is an important area for natural gas chemical industry in Chongqing. With the advantages of raw material resources, the downstream of the natural gas chemical industry chain is extended. At present, natural gas chemical products that have appeared include: acetylene, methanol, formaldehyde, polyoxymethylene, acetic acid, vinyl acetate, polyvinyl alcohol, PVA optical film, EVOH resin, etc. The natural gas chemical product chain varieties currently under construction include: BDO, degradable plastics, spandex, NMP, carbon nanotubes, lithium battery solvents, etc.

At present, the representative enterprises developing natural gas chemical industry in Chongqing include: BASF, Zhongrun Chemical, China Chemical Hualu, etc.

9. The province with the largest number of chemical parks in China: Shandong Province

According to statistical data, there are more than 1,000 provincial and national chemical parks in the country, of which Shandong Province has more than 100 chemical parks, making it the province with the largest number of chemical parks in China. According to the national requirements for the entry of chemical parks, the location of chemical parks is the main gathering area of ​​chemical enterprises. According to the main distribution of chemical parks in Shandong Province, they are mainly concentrated in Dongying, Zibo, Weifang, Heze and other cities, among which Dongying, Weifang and Zibo are the cities with the largest number of chemical enterprises.

10. China's largest phosphorus chemical production area: Hubei Province

According to the distribution characteristics of phosphate resources, my country's phosphate resources are mainly distributed in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hubei, and Hunan. Among them, the phosphate supply of Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan meets most of the national demand, forming a basic pattern of phosphorus resource supply of "transporting phosphorus from the south to the north and transporting phosphorus from the west to the east". Whether it is based on the number of phosphate and downstream phosphide production enterprises, or the ranking of production scale in the phosphorus chemical industry chain, Hubei Province is the main production area of ​​China's phosphorus chemical industry.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, Hubei Province's phosphate resource reserves account for more than 30% of the country's total resources, and its output accounts for 40% of the country's total output. In 2022, the output of phosphate reached 40 million tons. According to data from the Hubei Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, as of May 2022, Hubei Province ranked first in the country in the output of five products, including fertilizers, phosphate fertilizers, and fine phosphates. It is the country's first phosphorus chemical province and the country's largest fine phosphorus chemical production base, and the scale of phosphorus chemical industry accounts for 38.4% of the country.

Specifically from the product point of view, the export scale of Hubei Province's monoammonium phosphate has increased year by year. In 2022, the export volume of Hubei Province's monoammonium phosphate was 511,000 tons, and the export value was US$452 million. Representative phosphorus chemical production enterprises in Hubei Province include: Xingfa Group, Hubei Yihua, Xinyangfeng, etc. Among them, Xingfa Group is not only the largest sulfur chemical production enterprise in China, but also the largest fine phosphorus chemical production enterprise in China.