Chemical Fiber 2022: The winter of domestic carbon fiber has passed
The domestic carbon fiber industry has experienced a long cold winter, but in the past three years since the outbreak of the global new crown epidemic, it has ushered in spring unexpectedly.
In 2022, under the background of sluggish demand in the textile downstream market, severe overall chemical fiber market conditions, prices running at low levels throughout the year, obvious insufficient industry operating rates, and heavy pressure on corporate profits, domestic carbon fiber continues to stage a unique “story” “.
Although some carbon fiber companies briefly suspended production in the first half of the year, and poor logistics in many places also intermittently affected the shipments of many companies, the price of large tows this year has declined to a certain extent based on the high level last year. However, in the hot market In the face of the current market conditions, these small twists and turns are not worth mentioning.
This year, the production lines were basically running at full capacity, product production and sales were booming and even supply exceeded demand, companies generally made “a lot of money”, and multiple new projects were racing against time to meet the deadline…
This is the “main theme” of the domestic carbon fiber industry.
Important areas of stable supply of small tows
Aerospace has always been the dominant application area of carbon fiber, and the products used are small tows. Directed supply orders to major customers in the aerospace field are the “ballast stone” and “stabilizer” that enable my country’s carbon fiber industry to maintain stable operation every year.
Weihai Guangwei Composite Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Guangwei Composite Materials”) is the main supplier of carbon fiber for my country’s national defense industry. At the end of last year, Guangwei Composite Materials signed a 10-quarter shaped fiber sales contract totaling 2.098 billion yuan, with the contract period from January 2022 to the end of June 2024. Wang Yingchao, Secretary of the Board of Directors of Guangwei Composite Materials, said that sales contracts for shaped fibers have always been one of the company’s main sources of income. The company began executing the contract this year, and the contract execution rate in the first three quarters totaled 32.25%.
In the first three quarters of this year, Guangwei Composite Materials achieved operating income of approximately 1.94 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.17%; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was approximately 750 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.36%.
“During the year, the new crown epidemic caused the company’s five business segments to suspend production for more than half a month; the company’s shipments to Beijing and Shanghai were affected, which affected the company’s revenue and profits to a certain extent.” Wang Yingchao said.
In the past two years, the price of styling fiber products in the aviation application market has dropped. Li Taoyang, chief analyst of the military and new materials sectors of CITIC Securities Co., Ltd., said that the carbon fiber materials used in Guangwei composite materials and main models of equipment are produced in batches. Since then, the first price reduction has occurred in 2021. In the contract that is being executed with a cycle of two and a half years, the product price has been reduced again. “As many types of equipment products in our country enter the mass production stage, price reduction of batch production supporting materials is a trend.”
“In addition to ensuring the supply of shaped fibers, the application space of the company’s series of high-performance fibers continues to expand, and the business scale continues to expand. Since last year, a variety of carbon fiber products such as T800H grade, M40J/M55J grade, T700S/T800S grade have become The main source of the company’s new profits.” Wang Yingchao further introduced, “This year, one of the company’s high-performance carbon fibers also passed the installation review, allowing the company to add a new matching product to the existing traditional stereotyped fibers for batch delivery applications. The supply of shaped fibers for a certain important type of aviation equipment will gradually increase in volume in the future. The company has become a supplier of a full range of carbon fibers for important aviation equipment in my country.”
“The continuous diversification of products and businesses, and at the same time, the sustained high investment in R&D and the cultivation and development of business are the solid foundation for the steady development of the company’s performance.” Wang Yingchao said.
Zhongjian Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Zhongjian Technology”) is a batch and stable supplier of ZT7 series carbon fiber products in my country’s aerospace field. In March this year, Zhongjian Technology signed a major sales contract with a contract amount of 2.169 billion yuan and a contract execution period from 2022 to 2023. At the same time, at the beginning of this year, the production capacity of its 1,000-ton production line was officially released.
The surge in order amounts and the release of new production line capacity have caused Zhongjian Technology’s carbon fiber sales to increase significantly this year. In the first three quarters, the company’s revenue was 519 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 72.8%; the attributable net profit was 320 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 120.84%. “The company’s carbon fiber has been closely following the volume cycle of key models, which has been clearly reflected this year.” said Li Jianfeng, Secretary of the Board of Directors of Zhongjian Technology.
Regarding the current overall application of domestic carbon fiber in the aerospace field, Wang Wenyi, general manager of Guangwei Composite Materials, pointed out: “Domestic carbon fiber is currently mainly used in wind turbine blades and sports and leisure fields, and the combined usage in the two fields accounts for about the total annual usage. 70%; the usage in the aerospace field accounts for only 3%. In comparison, the application proportion of carbon fiber in the aerospace field in developed countries is much higher. Next, the application space of domestic carbon fiber in the aerospace field is still Huge. Therefore, everyone must work together to further expand the ‘cake’ of these two markets, and Guangwei will continue to firmly seize these two key high-end application markets.”
Small tow high-endThe target products have been adjusted according to market conditions this year. After the first phase of the project is put into production, it will mainly produce 12K and 24K T700S, T800S and T1000.
Wang Wenyi said: “The products we supply in these fields have always been in short supply. According to current customer intentions, even including the 4,000 tons of production capacity after the first phase of the Baotou project is put into operation, it is still not enough.”
Large tow production and sales are booming but cooling down
“Looking back on last year, domestic large-tow carbon fiber was ‘hard to find’. Even customers with large purchases or strategic cooperation often couldn’t get the goods from manufacturers, and the manufacturers’ quotations were always rising. Because the actual purchase price has increased a lot compared to the agreed price, the raw material costs of some companies increased a lot last year.” An industry insider lamented.
This year, the large-tow carbon fiber market is still in a state of booming production and sales, and manufacturing companies are still making “a lot of money.”
Jilin Carbon Valley Carbon Fiber Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Jilin Carbon Valley”) achieved operating income of 1.519 billion yuan in the first three quarters, a year-on-year increase of 110.01%; attributable net profit was 484 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 170.1%. Last year, its main business revenue was 1.209 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 104.14%; the attributable net profit was 315 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 126.09%. In 2020, its net profit is still in the red, with a loss of 30.0477 million yuan.
Jilin Carbon Valley said that this year the company’s products have expanded applications in the industrial and civilian markets, and sales of raw silk have increased. As the large townew products are gradually finalized, the quality of new and old products continues to improve. The production and sales of the company’s main products are booming, and the average sales price has increased year-on-year, supporting the growth of net profit.
The core driving force for this booming market of both production and sales still comes from the demand support of the wind turbine blade market. The current application fields of large tow carbon fibers such as 24K, 25K, and 48K are mainly wind power carbon beams.
Aosheng Composite Materials Technology Co., Ltd., located in Suzhou, Jiangsu, specializes in carbon fiber wind power pultruded panels and is a “big player” in carbon fiber applications. Xu Wenqian, general manager of Aosheng Technology, told reporters that the company’s carbon fiber usage in 2021 will be more than 10,000 tons, and this year’s usage will be approximately 12,000 tons.
However, it is worth noting that the large tow market has cooled down this year under the general market situation where production and sales are still booming.
From the perspective of supply and demand, represented by Jilin Chemical Fiber Group, a number of new domestic production capacities have been rapidly released, and market supply has increased significantly, which has greatly alleviated the severe shortage of supply last year. Data from Jilin Chemical Fiber Group shows that from the beginning of this year to mid-December, the group has newly put into production 4 raw yarn lines and 6 carbonization lines. By the beginning of next year, it is expected that 2 more raw yarn lines and 2 carbonization lines will be completed and put into operation. This will bring its annual production capacity of raw silk to 160,000 tons and carbon filament to 49,000 tons.
“This year, domestic large tow production capacity has expanded rapidly, and the domestic market supply is quite sufficient.” Xu Wenqian said.
Due to changes in supply and demand, the price of large tows showed a downward trend from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. As of mid-November this year, the average price of large-tow carbon fiber in my country was 129 yuan/kg, down about 12% from the beginning of the year.
“In the last two months of the year, the price of large tows dropped to the range of 105 yuan/kg-115 yuan/kg; in mid-December, the quotation of large tows even dropped to 100 yuan/kg.” An industry insider explain.
It is also worth noting that on the one hand, my country’s large tow production capacity is rapidly expanding, and on the other hand, downstream users still partially use imported products. Moreover, the price of imported large tow products has also declined this year.
“In the company’s total carbon fiber usage this year, domestic and imported products account for about half each. We mainly import 48K and 50K products. The price of imported large tows is similar to that of domestic products.” Xu Wenqian said, “We do this. It is to spread the risk of raw material procurement.”
In addition, because the overall price of carbon fiber is still high, some downstream users use glass fiber as a substitute in order to reduce costs. This has also become a reason for the cooling of the large tow market.
“Considering the high price of carbon fiber, we used about 150,000 tons of glass fiber this year, and also used the pultrusion process to produce wind power girders. These wind power girders are mainly sold to domestic customers.” Xu Wenqian said.
“Glass fiber is also occupying part of the market with its price advantage. Some composite material companies are developing the use of carbon fiber and glass fiber mixed thermosetting and thermoplastic pultrusion processes to produce wind power beams. Compared with carbon beams, the mixed process It has certain advantages in cost and will create certain competition in the carbon fiber market.” said the above-mentioned industry insider.
“The situation of ‘price competition’ in my country’s large-tow carbon fiber market may have begun.” A senior practitioner in the carbon fiber industry told reporters.
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