[Introduction] : Starting from 2020, China’s polyethylene has entered a new round of centralized capacity expansion, and its production capacity continues to expand, with 2.6 million tons of new production capacity in 2023, and a total of 32.41 million tons of polyethylene production capacity, an increase of 8.72% compared with 2022; In 2023, China’s polyethylene production is expected to be 28.1423 million tons, an increase of 11.16% over 2022.

From 2019 to 2023, China’s polyethylene production capacity increased steadily, with a compound growth rate of 13.31%. Since 2020, with the rise of local enterprises, polyethylene has entered a new round of centralized expansion period, on behalf of enterprises Wanhua Chemical, Zhejiang Petrochemical and Lianyungang Petrochemical, polyethylene raw materials are more diversified, and the voice of local enterprises is constantly improving.

After 2020, China has entered the era of great refining and chemical capacity expansion, with the advancement of refining and chemical integration projects and the continuous optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, the market influence is also strengthening, and the dependency on polyethylene imports is also gradually declining, and the dependency on polyethylene imports is expected to drop to about 32% in 2023. From the perspective of the overall product structure of the domestic industry, although the proportion of special materials has increased, the proportion of general materials is still too large, homogenization is serious, and the competition of enterprises is increasingly intensified.

In 2023, a total of 2.6 million tons of polyethylene production capacity will be added, with HDPE and full-density installations still being the main ones, of which HDPE production capacity will increase by 1.9 million tons and LLDPE production capacity will increase by 700,000 tons. By region, the enterprises put into production are mainly concentrated in South China, South China’s new production capacity totaled 1.8 million tons, accounting for 69.23% of the annual increase, and the supply pressure in South China increased. In 2023, China’s polyethylene production capacity totaled 32.41 million tons, an increase of 8.72% compared with 2022. Among them, HDPE has a capacity of 15.115 million tons, LDPE has a capacity of 4.635 million tons (including 1.3 million tons of LDPE/EVA co-production units), and LLDPE has a capacity of 12.66 million tons.

China’s polyethylene industry capacity continues to expand, driven by the increase in production year by year, 2023 polyethylene new production capacity of 2.6 million tons, superposition crude oil prices fell from last year’s high, production enterprises capacity utilization has been repaired, production steadily increased. According to statistics from Longzhong Information, the compound growth rate of polyethylene production in China from 2019 to 2023 is expected to be 12.39%, and the annual output of polyethylene in China in 2023 is expected to be 28.1423 million tons, an increase of 11.16% compared with 2022.

In 2023, China’s HDPE polyethylene production accounted for 46.50% of the total output, LLDPE polyethylene production accounted for 42.22% of the total output, LDPE polyethylene production accounted for 11.28% of the total output, and the devices put into operation in 2023 are still dominated by HDPE and full-density devices, and the output ratio of HDPE has increased. The proportion of LDPE and LLDPE production decreased slightly.