Driven by the development of the automotive industry and the growth in demand for new applications in the field of consumer electronics, the demand for polycarbonate (PC) in the world has grown steadily, and China has become the largest consumer of polycarbonate. However, our country's polycarbonate production technology is still in its infancy, and the products are also dominated by currency. It is urgent to further enhance the competitiveness in the field of high value-added products.
The world's polycarbonate production capacity has developed steadily in recent years. As of August 2016, the global polycarbonate annual production capacity was 4.921 million tons, and the production facilities were mainly concentrated in Northeast Asia, North America and Western Europe. In 2016, the annual production capacity of these three regions together reached 3.991 million tons, accounting for 81.1% of the world's total capacity.
The industrial production methods of polycarbonate currently mainly include interfacial polycondensation, molten ester exchange polycondensation, and non-phosgene molten ester exchange polycondensation. The first two types are also called "phosgene method", and the latter type is "non-phosgene method". In terms of global production capacity, the phosgene method accounts for nearly 80% of the production capacity. Although the non-phosgene method accounts for less than 20% of the production capacity, it will become the development direction of polycarbonate production technology in the future.
At present, the growth of Asian demand has led to the rapid growth of the world's polycarbonate capacity, and the production center has shifted to Asia, especially to developing countries such as China. As of August 2016, the annual production capacity of polycarbonate in our country reached 870,000 tons, surpassing the United States to become the world's largest polycarbonate producer. Similar to the process structure of the world's total production capacity, the phosgene polycarbonate production capacity in our country accounts for 80% of the country's total production capacity.
In the next few years, there are still many companies in the world planning to build or expand polycarbonate production plants. It is expected that by 2020, the annual production capacity of polycarbonate in the world will reach 5.60 million tons. Asia, especially Northeast Asia, is the world's most important polycarbonate production base. The world's polycarbonate is mainly used in film/sheet, automotive, electronics/electrical, appliances/household goods and other fields.
In 2010, the world's total consumption of polycarbonate was 3.228 million tons, which increased to 3.983 million tons in 2015, with an average annual growth rate of about 4.29%. Consumption is mainly concentrated in Northeast Asia, North America and Western Europe. In 2015, the consumption of these three regions accounted for 78.2% of the total consumption. Among them, Northeast Asia accounts for half of the world's total consumption.
Although the production capacity and consumption of polycarbonate in our country continue to increase, the products are generally basic materials, mainly used for packaging and film/board, etc. The application range is relatively narrow and the profit is low. The alloy modification, plastic modification and other high value-added products used in automobiles, home appliances, electronic products and other fields rely on Covestro, Teijin and other joint ventures. The polycarbonate industry in our country lacks independent core technologies. Most of the existing enterprises are wholly foreign-owned, and the upcoming devices are mostly Sino-foreign joint ventures.
