On November 12, 2025, the 250,000 tons per annum thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) project of Shanghai Jinshan Baling New Material Co., Ltd. was fully completed and successfully commissioned at one go. The project is co-invested by Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical and Sinopec Hunan Petrochemical, and all finished products passed full qualification inspection after startup.
Classified as a key industrial project of Shanghai Municipality and a core strategic project under Sinopec Group, the construction followed a clear schedule: pile foundation construction broke ground on June 16, 2022; civil engineering kicked off in April 2023; the plant achieved mechanical completion in June 2025. The cyclohexane column system started up on October 12, 2025. After one month of systematic pre-commission preparation, the formal SBS production line rolled out qualified commercial products on November 12, 2025.
Adopting proprietary full-set process technologies independently developed by Sinopec, the new plant outperforms conventional production routes remarkably in environmental protection, energy consumption management and overall production efficiency.
The site manufactures three mainstream grades of styrenic block copolymers (SBC, a major category of thermoplastic elastomers):
140,000 MT/year SBS (Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene block copolymer)
50,000 MT/year SEBS (hydrogenated saturated SBS copolymer)
60,000 MT/year SIS (Styrene-Isoprene-Styrene block copolymer)
With a total investment of 3.27 billion RMB and a total site area of 352 mu, the modern manufacturing base is built via strategic cooperation between Shanghai Petrochemical and Hunan Petrochemical, focusing on premium TPE raw materials widely known as "golden rubber".
Located in Jinshan District (Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical’s home base), the project enjoys dual core advantages:
Resource synergy: It shares feedstock supply, utility facilities, centralized environmental treatment and regional supporting services from adjacent Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical, maximizing integrated industrial chain profit.
Regional market edge: East China consumes over 40% of China’s domestic TPE market volume with robust ongoing consumption growth.
Thermoplastic elastomer is a high-performance new polymer material combining easy plastic processing property and superior rubber elasticity. Featured with eco-friendly property, convenient fabrication and full recyclability, SBC materials serve high-end downstream sectors including baby products, medical devices, reinforcement material for 5G optical cables and eco-friendly artificial leather. Certain medical-grade grades are applicable for human implant use with promising long-term market prospects.
The newly launched facility fills Sinopec’s blank of large-scale TPE production capacity across East China and supplies premium thermoplastic rubber for the whole Yangtze River Delta industrial cluster. According to statistics from International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers (IISRP), styrenic thermoplastic elastomers have registered the fastest consumption growth among all global synthetic rubber varieties in recent years.
