Soda Ash Industry Twelve Five Maintain Total Balance

"Soda ash industry" "Twelfth Five-year Development Plan", hereinafter referred to as "planning" officially surfaced a few days ago.

In view of the trend of further excess production capacity, China will control the total amount of soda ash products, maintain the basic balance between supply and demand for soda ash, and control the production capacity of soda ash by 30 million tons by 2015. According to the “Planning”, in the future, China will encourage large-scale soda ash companies that play a major role in industrial upgrading. They will become bigger and stronger through technological transformation projects and restructuring, and will strictly control new construction projects.

Soda Ash Market Oversupply

From 2005 to 2008, China's production of soda ash had a strong growth momentum. During the four years, the output of soda ash increased by 5.75 million tons, with an average annual increase of 10%. In the second half of 2008, due to the financial crisis, the consumption market for soda ash was in the doldrums. However, during the same period, the domestic new construction and expansion of soda ash projects were put into production and production capacity increased rapidly.

During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, China's soda ash production capacity has increased by an average of 9.4% annually. By the end of 2010, China's soda ash production capacity has reached 24.3 million tons, accounting for approximately 41% of the world's total production capacity. In 2010, China's soda production was 20.47 million tons, accounting for about 42% of the world's total production.

According to statistics, as of the end of 2010, there were 44 soda ash production enterprises in China, and as many as 14 companies had production capacities of 600,000 metric tons per year or more. Among them, there are 9 companies with capacities between 300,000 and 600,000 tons/year, and 21 companies with capacity below 300,000 tons/year. The capacity of the top ten soda ash companies accounts for 62% of the country's total.

However, due to the rapid growth in the production capacity of soda ash in China in recent years, the growth of production capacity has been excessive, and there has been an oversupply situation in the market. Moreover, in the first three years of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, there will be more than 2 million tons of new soda ash production capacity put into the market every year. It is estimated that by the end of 2012, China's soda ash production capacity will reach 30 million tons.

The reporter learned that China's soda ash business has a large quantity and small scale, and especially the company's joint ventures are mostly developed from small and medium sized nitrogenous fertilizer companies, and their overall competitiveness in the market is poor.

In recent years, the production capacity of soda ash in China has grown rapidly and the overcapacity is serious. In the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, more than 6 million tons of new production capacity will be put into the market. This will further exacerbate the oversupply of soda ash in China, and the competition among enterprises will further intensify. The merger and reorganization between the industry and the upstream and downstream industries is inevitable.

According to industry sources, the problem of ammonium chloride will seriously limit the survival and development of Lianhua. With the construction of new alkali companies and the gradual resumption of production and expansion of the joint ventures, the production capacity of ammonium chloride will also increase rapidly. It is expected that by the end of 2012, the ammonium chloride production capacity will exceed 15 million tons. At the same time, the overcapacity of nitrogen fertilizers such as urea and ammonium phosphate has continued to increase, and the ammonium chloride market has been squeezed. At the same time, ammonium chloride, the main downstream product of ammonium chloride, continues to develop in the direction of high-concentration mixed fertilizers, reducing the amount of ammonium chloride used, which makes the sales of ammonium chloride increasingly narrow.

Adhere to total capacity control

In view of the surplus of soda ash market, the “planning” proposes that large enterprises that insist on total control over the development of soda ash industry, support high technology levels, have good market prospects, and have a major effect on industrial upgrading, should make large-scale enterprises through technological transformation projects and restructuring. Strong. New projects should be strictly controlled. New soda ash projects must be approved by the provincial investment management department, and can be implemented only after the relevant national departments concerned, such as the China Soda Industry Association, have determined that they are in line with industrial policies.

At the same time, we will make full use of and absorb some of our already-developed production capabilities, further optimize the industrial structure, promote rational distribution, and coordinate the development of the eastern, central and western regions. For the eastern coastal areas with concentrated production capacity, new production capacity should be strictly controlled, focusing on breakthroughs in quality, variety, technology development, and corporate restructuring.

"Planning" proposes to increase the output of soda ash products and increase the proportion of heavy soda ash and dry ammonium. During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, through the adjustment of product structure, we will improve the quality of soda ash products in China, especially the quality of associative alkali products; increase the production ratio of heavy soda ash and the capacity of dry ammonium chloride, and strive to obtain heavy soda ash production capacity and dry ammonium chloride production capacity respectively. More than 50% of total capacity to meet market demand.

According to the “planning”, by 2015, China will control 30 million tons of soda production capacity, ammonium chloride production capacity of 15 million tons or less, while increasing soda ash exports to meet market demand balance. According to the medium-term planning of the industry, by 2015, it will strive to reach 2.5 million tons of soda ash exports.

"Planning" also proposed that efforts to increase sales of ammonium chloride, to solve the joint worry about the base. On the one hand, encouraging direct application of ammonium chloride, research and development of ammonium chloride granulation technology, research of large-scale ammonium chloride granulation equipment, on the other hand, efforts to expand exports of ammonium chloride, and at the same time carry out the decomposition, modification and deep processing of ammonium chloride. the study. At the same time, further reduce consumption, reduce costs, and increase the market competitiveness of soda ash.

Propose to release industrial salt management

China Soda Industry Association put forward relevant suggestions on the issues that restrict the development of the industry in the "Planning".

The "two alkali" industrial salt accounts for about two-thirds of the country's salt. In order to meet the requirements of the market economy, and in order to promote the development of the “alkali” industries of the original salt production enterprises, the Soda Ash Association calls for the abolition of the “Salt Industry Management Regulations”, the abolition of the permit for transport and the quasi-transportation system as soon as possible, and the stoppage of interim fees and production and sales. "Meeting" completely liberalized the operation of industrial salt.

In addition, the Soda Ash Association believes that at present, the chlor-alkali soda ash company recovers about 400,000 tons of industrial salt and 800,000 tons of calcium chloride each year from the waste liquid. The cost of production is lower than the cost of calcium chloride manufactured using limestone and reaction, and the state should encourage it. Preferential policies on relevant taxes should be given.

Steamed ammonia waste has always been the primary environmental issue that restricts the development of ammonia-alkali enterprises. In recent years, ammonia and alkali enterprises such as Qingdao, South China, and Haihua have used steamed ammonia residue and salt mud for the removal of boiler flue gas, and realized two-way treatment. Soda Ash Association recommends that the State encourage qualified power plants to adopt waste slag removal technology to treat boiler flue gas and promote the application of this technology.