July China SBS Operating Rate Hit New Highs

SCI99

2019-08-13

July China SBS Operating Rate Hit New Highs

In July 2019, China’s SBS operating rate reached 75.41%, up 7.46% M-O-M, hitting new highs over this year. The peak road construction season is approaching. The newly added units go into operation successively in 2019, so the operating rates at China’s producers hover at highs.

There were thirteen SBS producers being investigated, including 4 state-owned enterprises, 1 Taiwan-funded enterprise, 2 Sino-foreign joint ventures, and 6 private enterprises. The total capacity was 1,220kt/a. In July, the newly added SBS unit at Zhejiang Zhongli Synthetic Material Technology with the design capacity of 40kt/a was mainly used to produce dry SBS and regular road modification-used SBS. The operation date of the SBC units at Huizhou LCY Elastomers and Ningbo Changhong Polymer Scientific and Technical was delayed to August.

In July 2019, the average operating rate of China’ SBS units was 75.41%, up 7.56% M-O-M and up 3.17% Y-O-Y, hitting new highs over this year. This month, the SBS new line at Ningbo Jinhai Chenguang Chemical was under normal operation. The newly added SBS unit at Zhejiang Zhongli Synthetic Material Technology went into operation in mid-July. The units at most producers ran steadily, except that all units at PetroChina Dushanzi Petrochemical took overhauls in H2 July and one line at Sinopec Baling Company underwent maintenance in end-July.

In the 13 sampled producers, the monthly operating rates at 2 of them declined, accounting for 15% of the total. At Sinopec Baling Company, five lines were under normal operation, and one line produced SBS and SIS. And in end-July, one SBS line underwent maintenance, and only four lines produced SBS. At PetroChina Dushanzi Petrochemical, all lines underwent maintenance from July 20 for 50 days.

The monthly operating rates at 4 of them rose, accounting for 31% of the total. This month, the unit at Shandong Hauyu Rubber was under normal operation. Three lines at Huizhou LCY Elastomers produced SBS. The new SBS line at Ningbo Jinhai Chenguang Chemical operated under high load, and the line was restarted in mid-June. The 40kt/a SBS unit at Zhejiang Zhongli Synthetic Material Technology was put into operation in mid-July and mainly produced road modification-used SBS.

The monthly operating rates at 6 producers were largely stable, accounting for 54% of the total. Therein, the operating rate at Tianjin LG Botian Chemical, LND and Sinopec Beijing Yanshan Company was largely unchanged M-O-M. The switchable production units at Guangdong Sunion Chemical & Plastic, Shandong Jusage Technology and Ningbo Jinhai Chenguang Chemical produced SIS.