SEBS Marketing Of Baling Petrochemical Market

In the first half of this year, the sales of SEBS products, the largest domestic styrene thermoplastic elastomer (SBC) manufacturer and Baling Petrochemical synthetic rubber division, exceeded 4800 tons, exceeding the sales volume of last year.

At the same time, the monthly output of the unit with an annual capacity of 10 thousand tons is stable at more than 900 tons, and the operation is stable at present.

The production and sale of the device "double standards" again attracted attention.

SBC has excellent performance and continuous development. Thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) has the characteristics of plastics and rubber, and is known as "the third generation of synthetic rubber".

In TPE, SBC (also known as styrene block copolymer) occupies an important position and is currently the largest and fastest growing thermoplastic elastomer in the world.

SBC is also called lithium polymer because its organic lithium is used as initiator in its production process.

According to the block component SBC, styrene butadiene styrene block copolymer (SBS), styrene isoprene styrene block copolymer (SIS) and their corresponding hydrogenated products hydrogenated SBS (SEBS) and hydrogenated SIS (SEPS) can be classified into four types. According to the polymer structure, they can be divided into two types: linear and star type; according to their properties, they can be divided into two categories: pure (non oil filled and oil filled) and all kinds of filler (mixture).

According to the proportion and molecular weight of hard and soft segments, they can be classified into several grades.

SBC has excellent tensile strength, large surface friction coefficient, good low temperature resistance, excellent electrical properties and good processability.

Due to its excellent physical properties, SBC has been developing rapidly and has become the largest consumption of thermoplastic elastomer, accounting for 45-50% of total consumption of thermoplastic elastomers.

In SBC, SBS accounts for more than 70%, which is the largest SBC product; SIS accounts for about 20% of SBC consumption; SEBS based hydrogen products account for about 7% of SBC consumption.

Compared with other thermoplastic elastomers, SBC has the characteristics of high strength, softness and small permanent deformation, and has rubber elasticity. It is suitable for hot melt processing of adhesives and sealing materials. It is widely used in shoemaking, liquid sealing materials, wires, cables, automobile parts, medical device parts, household appliances and adhesives.

Among them, SBS is mainly used in shoes, plastics and asphalt modifiers; SEBS is mainly used for adhesives, medical supplies, automobiles, home appliances and automation office equipment; SIS and its hydrogenation products SEPS are mainly used for hot melt adhesive and asphalt modification, and different countries and regions have different emphasis on their main uses.

SEBS consumption growth is faster in SBC, while SEBS accounts for a small proportion of consumption. However, the characteristics of SEBS make it a hot topic of research and development in recent years, and its consumption growth is increasing rapidly.

According to the insiders, the annual consumption of SEBS in the United States is about 7-8 tons, and is expected to grow at a rate of 3%. In Western Europe, the annual demand for SEBS is about 30 thousand tons, and its growth rate will reach 5-7%. In Japan, the annual demand for SEBS products is also about 2-3 tons, and the demand for other products in the rest of the world is estimated to be around 150 thousand tons of SEBS hydrogenated products worldwide.

It is understood that with the growth of demand, the world's major SEBS hydrogenation products manufacturers have some expansion plans.

For example, cotten has increased the capacity of Kraton G by 10 thousand tons / year in 2005, and set up a multi-functional customer service center in Shanghai in 2007. It also plans to build a new Kraton G production plant in the Asia Pacific region. Japan's Cola company expanded its annual production capacity from 12 thousand tons to 18 thousand tons in 2007, and the factory in Spain and Mexico also has expansion plans.

Industry analysts estimate that the capacity of the Americas is about 9-10 tons, the European capacity is about 4-5 tons, and the Asian capacity is 4-5 million tons, totaling 17-20 million tons / year.

While expanding capacity, manufacturers also attach great importance to product innovation. At present, the main research direction is to develop PVC substitutes, soft vulcanized rubber alternatives and new adhesive materials.

At present, there is only one SEBS production line with annual output of 10 thousand tons per year in the Baling Petrochemical synthetic rubber division of Sinopec. Its annual output (20 thousand phase) of the two phase project is being carried out.

According to information, Taiwan's 20 thousand ton SEBS plant in Nantong will be put into operation in the middle of this year.

Mainland China is one of the fastest growing areas of SEBS application, and its growth in imports is evident.

According to official statistics, the import volume of hydrogenated products was about 6000 tons in 2005, and the import volume increased to about 10 thousand tons in 2006.

At present, the application of SEBS in China is mainly focused on soft contact coating materials, low hardness elastomers, compatibilizer of SBS and other materials.

With the development of the economy and the improvement of the quality requirements of the market, the amount of SEBS in the existing elastomers will increase. This will only increase the market capacity of more than 10 thousand tons.

With the development of various new uses, such as the replacement of soft PVC, modification of various general plastics, application of sealing strips and wire and cable, and application of viscosity index improver in oil, experts predict that the domestic SEBS market capacity will increase further in five years.

To this end, domestic enterprises are facing development opportunities, but they are also faced with many challenges, especially the challenges of product quality and stability.

The upgrading of quality and production and marketing standards, a new product from research and development to achieve industrial production, and then put on the market, and then get market recognition, may need a very long process.

However, the baling brand SEBS of Baling Petrochemical synthetic rubber business has been practicing for more than two years.

The project of "complete set of technology development of thermoplastic elastomer SEBS" has been listed in the national "863" plan, and "20 thousand tons of metallocene hydrogenated SEBS complete technology development" project is one of the key technology tackling projects of Sinopec "ten dragons".

In March 2006, the Ministry of industry established and put into operation the first domestic production of 10000 tons of SEBS industrial production equipment with independent intellectual property rights. The SEBS products produced by many brands have filled the gap in China, and can replace imports and participate in international competition, so that the market share and influence of domestic SBC products will be further improved.

After the commissioning of the 10000 ton SEBS industrial plant, there are some bottlenecks that need to be broken through in the process of operation: color change, smell and other quality problems affect the development of SEBS products; stable operation is restricted by the long-term running in of equipment and technology.

In this regard, Baling Petrochemical synthetic rubber division has brought into full play the integration advantage of "production, marketing and research", organized nearly 100 professional and technical personnel involved in the research team, tracking the whole process, product quality, user use and other links. Through careful organization of small trials and pilot tests, on the one hand, it has put forward more than 10 specific implementation suggestions and suggestions for optimizing the production and improving the quality of the device, and on the other hand, has developed SEBS new products.

In the early development of the basic formula of SEBS fuel and the new brand of special SEBS, after the popularization and application in the cable field, 2 new SEBS brand products were developed and trial production was carried out.

Substantial progress has been made in the development of new SEBS products for tackling oil.

After more than 300 experiments, the technical staff found the fundamental causes affecting the quality of SEBS and put forward the measures to deal with it.

At the same time, in view of the high consumption of equipment and the high cost of products, the Department also concentrated on the rectification and optimization of a series of defects from the optimization of the process and the elimination of equipment. Only one way of adding catalyst can effectively reduce the production cost of SEBS, and the localization of the equipment has also laid a solid technical foundation for further improvement of the plant's capacity.

Technological innovation has made equipment operation more and more normal, and also made SEBS quality and output increase steadily.

In May this year, SEBS output reached 910.67 tons, reaching the target of the month.

At the same time, in order to get close to the market and expand sales, the business department actively seeks for customers on the one hand. Through information enquiries and discussions with distributors, we can understand the downstream business dynamics, communicate with them directly, send samples to manufacturers for trial use, provide technical guidance, and timely track the trial situation; on the other hand, the marketing personnel of the Department are closely related to scientific research personnel, timely feedback product quality information and market new product development information, and actively work with researchers to find solutions to customers' difficulties and problems in the trial and use of products.

In the past six months, the Ministry has been providing 8 after sale technical services for its users.

As of the end of June, the Ministry has sold 4820.675 tons of SEBS products this year, including 501, 502, 503, 561, 563 of the sales line brands, 4341.27 tons, and 602 star brand 602 355.085 tons, with a market share reaching more than 60% in China.