1. There is still a certain gap between domestic PVC processing aids and foreign products, and low prices do not have a major advantage in market competition.
Although domestic products have certain geographical and price advantages in market competition, we have certain gaps in product performance, variety, stability, and other aspects compared to foreign products. This is related to the backwardness of our product formula, processing technology, processing, and post-treatment technology. Some domestic enterprises are fully aware of these issues and have established cooperative relationships with research institutions, research and development institutions, and carried out research on plastic additives.
2. Small factories are diverse and there is no leading enterprise with an absolute position, leading to disorderly competition in the market.
At present, there are about 30 domestic ACR manufacturers, but only 4 of them have large-scale production (with an annual installation capacity of over 5000 tons). The products of these large-scale enterprises have established a good image in both domestic and international markets, regardless of product variety and quality. But in the past two years, with the prosperity of the PVC processing industry, some ACR small factories with a production capacity of less than 1000 tons have rushed to the market. Due to their simple production equipment and poor product stability, these enterprises can only survive by using low-priced dumping, resulting in fierce price competition in the domestic market. Some low-quality and low standard products immediately flooded the market, bringing adverse effects to downstream processing enterprises and also bringing significant negative impacts to industry development. It is recommended that the Plastic Processing Association take the lead in establishing the ACR Additive Industry Association, unify industry standards, regulate industry development, eliminate counterfeit and inferior products, and reduce disorderly competition. At the same time, large-scale enterprises should increase their product development efforts, adjust their product structure, and maintain synchronous development with similar foreign products.
3. The rise in crude oil prices has led to an increase in raw material prices and a decrease in corporate profits.
Due to the continuous rise in international crude oil prices, all the main raw materials for ACR production, methyl methacrylate and acrylic ester, have skyrocketed. However, downstream customers have lagged behind in product price increases, resulting in a general decline in profits for ACR processing enterprises. This has led to a loss situation for the entire industry in 2003 and 2004. Currently, due to the stabilization of raw material prices, the industry has shown a good trend of profitability.
4. Lack of professional talents, industry research has not been able to develop in depth
Due to the fact that ACR additive is a polymer material additive that only developed in China in the late 1990s, its research and development units and researchers are relatively few compared to other additives such as plasticizers and flame retardants in China. Even if there are individual research institutions developing it, the lack of good integration between researchers and the plastic processing industry has led to the inability to deepen product research. At present, the development of ACR in China relies only on the research institutions owned by a few enterprises to organize and develop. Although certain achievements have been made, there is a great gap between domestic and foreign counterparts in terms of research funding, research and development equipment, and research and development quality. If this situation is not fundamentally improved, it will be an unknown whether processing aids can stand firm in the domestic market in the future.
Post time: Jun-14-2024
