The healthy and sustainable development of any industry is a necessary condition for the stable development of the entire industry chain. The healthy and sustainable development of the traditional composite material (fiberglass) industry needs to be based on the healthy and sustainable development of its upstream glass fiber and unsaturated polyester resin industries. The glass fiber industry has completed industrial integration and formed a landmark industry with high competitiveness, while the unsaturated resin industry has just begun the prelude to industry restructuring. The following changes are bound to have a huge impact on the traditional composite material industry.
With the significant changes in the petrochemical industry landscape, the unsaturated resin industry is undergoing a historic transformation, mainly reflected in the following five aspects. Scaling. The total production of unsaturated resins in mainland China has been dominant for many years. In 2020, the total production reached 3.42 million tons, exceeding 60% of the total production; In 2021, despite the impact of the COVID-19, especially the extreme shortage of raw materials, the total output will decline to 3.15 million tons, but this scale is still in the first place. The market structure of unsaturated resin is unique, that is, the market for non reinforced products is evenly divided with that for reinforced products. That is to say, the total amount of unsaturated resin used in the traditional composite material market every year is about 1.6 million tons, supporting the market size of traditional composite material products with over 4.3 million to 4.6 million tons.
The unsaturated resin industry not only has a huge total amount, but also has a production capacity far exceeding other industries. In other regions, the vast majority of unsaturated resin production enterprises have a single factory production capacity of 30000 to 60000 tons; At present, the scale of producing 100000 tons per year has become an entry-level enterprise, and more and more enterprises with an annual production capacity of 200000 tons are becoming standard scale. Additionally, three enterprises have a single factory with an annual production capacity of 300000 tons. These giant level production enterprises not only have a strong comprehensive cost competitive advantage, but also have the ability to independently support a single downstream market. The strong production capacity of unsaturated resin is the foundation for traditional composite material production enterprises to undertake large-scale infrastructure projects and participate in international market competition in the future. It should be pointed out that compared to foreign peers and upstream glass fiber and unsaturated resin industries, the single factory scale of the traditional composite material industry is generally small and scattered, lacking a large number of large-scale composite material product production enterprises with annual revenue exceeding 1 billion or even 2 billion yuan. This situation is very unfavorable for the development of the traditional composite material industry in the long run. Secondly, regionalization. At present, the development of the unsaturated resin industry is influenced by two major factors: one is the layout of the petrochemical industry, and the other is the control of hazardous chemical transportation. The former provides strong support for the development of unsaturated resins in terms of raw materials, while the latter significantly increases the cost of long-distance transportation. For a long time, Jiangsu Province has been the only export destination for unsaturated resin production capacity, mainly due to the fact that the lower reaches of the Yangtze River have always been the hub for Asian chemical transportation and trade, and the acquisition of raw materials is relatively convenient. Moreover, Jiangsu Province is located in the middle of its geographical location, with convenient transportation conditions and similar distances from the southern and northern ends. In recent years, with the construction of 10 large-scale petrochemical joint production bases, more and more provinces from Northeast to Guangdong have the conditions to provide basic petrochemical products on a large scale, making the cost of on-site production increasingly low. Especially in Shandong, Fujian, and Guangdong regions, they have become regions with advantageous conditions for the development of the petrochemical industry chain. In this situation, the cost competitiveness of unsaturated resin production enterprises in Jiangsu Province in selling products through long-distance transportation is facing increasingly severe challenges. In areas with relatively concentrated downstream industries, newly established unsaturated resin production enterprises have rapidly emerged, rapidly covering the surrounding market area with a transportation radius of 350-500 kilometers, providing more convenient conditions for the development of traditional composite material enterprises in the region. The regional production of unsaturated resins and the on-site procurement of traditional composite material enterprises have gradually become new features of the entire industry chain development model. Thirdly, automation. In the past decade, the significant change in the unsaturated resin industry has been the comprehensive implementation of automated basic transformation in the production process, and DCS has become the standard system for all unsaturated resin production enterprises. The improvement of automation level not only greatly reduces production personnel, reduces labor intensity, and improves the response ability to sudden safety accidents, but also has significance and value. It provides technical means for unsaturated resin production enterprises to stabilize product quality, and the stability of product batches is generally greatly improved, This provides strong support for the large-scale use of mechanized and automated production equipment by traditional composite material production enterprises. Fourthly, standardization. In the development process of the traditional composite material product industry over the past few decades, an obvious flaw is the lack of complete technical standards for products, especially in the unsaturated resin industry. In the vast majority of application fields, the product standards for unsaturated resin are blank, which has caused huge market chaos and caused great confusion for downstream industries, especially traditional composite material industry enterprises, This has brought them enormous difficulties in selecting materials and designing products. At present, this situation is being improved, and a large number of technical standards for unsaturated resin products related to the performance of traditional composite material products are being formulated. From methyl ethyl ketone peroxide to continuous winding pipeline resin, refrigerated vehicle board resin, mechanism continuous plate resin, to tension winding woven power pipeline resin, and other unsaturated resin varieties used in composite material products with large market production are particularly noteworthy, We have formulated the "Limit Standards for Prohibited and Restricted Substances in Unsaturated Polyester Resin", which includes health standards in the product standard system. This provides a judgment basis for the future government's large-scale crackdown on illegal and excessive profits made by adding toxic and harmful solvents to unsaturated resin products. Fifth, standardization. Safety production, environmental protection, and legal taxation are the three major regulatory guidelines for the unsaturated resin industry. From the perspective of the entire industry chain, these three are also the normative guidelines for the traditional composite material industry. With the implementation of the new version of the Republic's Work Safety Law, the supervision of hazardous chemicals has extended from their production, storage, transportation, and operation to their use. It is required that all production enterprises using hazardous chemicals as raw materials must establish storage facilities that match the safety level of the hazardous chemical materials used. This requirement is currently becoming a bottleneck project for the vast majority of traditional composite material production enterprises, but unfortunately, most related enterprises have not received sufficient attention, with many observers and few actors. From the experience of the unsaturated resin industry, the impact of this safety regulation on enterprises is far greater than environmental requirements, and it is enough to become a killer weapon for the complete reshuffle of the traditional composite material industry in the future, with a large number of unqualified enterprises being eliminated. I hope relevant enterprises can seize the time, strive for initiative, take action as soon as possible, establish raw material storage facilities in accordance with relevant requirements, and seek optimal solutions. At present, the environmental pressure faced by the traditional composite material industry mainly comes from the treatment of VOC pollution, which is directly related to unsaturated resins. The technical solutions for treatment are diverse, depending on the specific requirements and emission standards of the local environmental protection department. In addition to air suction and exhaust treatment, low styrene volatile unsaturated resin can also be used to fundamentally reduce styrene emissions and VOC emissions in the production environment, thereby reducing the pressure of environmental protection treatment. At present, the traditional composite material industry has neither knowledge nor understanding of low styrene volatile resins. The so-called lack of understanding is the lack of knowledge about such products, and the lack of understanding is because the price of this type of resin is slightly higher than that of traditional resins. Therefore, it is believed that it will increase the cost of the enterprise. Unsaturated polyester resin is composed of two parts: polyester resin and styrene cross-linked monomer. These two parts are the organic components of the resin, and their proportions are calculated scientifically. The lack of either part will have an adverse impact on the quality of composite material products. Under the condition of continuous 24 hours of open standing at 25 ℃ without wind, the volatile amount of styrene in unsaturated resin can reach over 30%, while low styrene volatile resin can reduce the volatile amount of styrene by 90% under static conditions, and can also reduce the volatile amount of styrene by more than 50% under most dynamic conditions. The resin is slightly more expensive, but the less volatile styrene is equivalent to retaining the effective components of the resin, Equivalent to having too much resin, calculating it in detail will not increase the cost of composite material products.
