The demand for polyolefin catalysts continues to grow, and the domestic substitution process in the domestic market is expected to accelerate in the future.

Polyolefin is a polymer of olefins, referred to as PO, which refers to the general name of thermoplastic resins prepared by the individual polymerization or copolymerization of cyclic olefins such as ethylene, propylene, 1-butene, and 1-pentene. Polyolefins are an important class of fine chemical products with good water resistance, coloring properties, chemical resistance, etc. They are currently used in various industries of the national economy such as packaging, electronics, chemicals, automobiles, machinery, building materials, agriculture, medical care, and aviation. It is widely used in China and the market demand space is relatively broad.

Polyolefin catalysts are important raw materials for polyolefin production and are key additives that can improve the performance of polyolefin products. According to different principles, polyolefin catalysts can be divided into metallocene catalysts, non-metallocene catalysts, bifunctional catalysts, composite catalysts, Ziegler-Natta catalysts, etc. Currently, driven by the rapid development of the domestic polyolefin market, the market demand for polyolefin catalysts continues to grow.

Among them, polypropylene and polyethylene are the mainstream products in the polyolefin market. In 2022, domestic polyethylene production capacity will be close to 30 million tons, and polypropylene production capacity will exceed 32 million tons. In this context, polyolefin catalysts are key additives for polyolefin production. According to “China’s Polyolefin Catalyst Industry Market 2023-2027” released by the Industrial Research Center Monitoring and Future Development Prospects Research Report shows that the domestic polyolefin catalyst market demand has reached 16.58 million tons in 2022, and the demand has shown continued growth.

At the same time, in recent years, against the background of the rapid development of domestic industry and manufacturing, the market demand for polyolefins has continued to escalate, and the demand for high-end and differentiated polyolefins has continued to rise, which in turn has driven the demand for polyolefin catalysts to continue to escalate. However, due to the lack of domestic core technology, my country’s high-end polyolefin self-sufficiency rate is still at a low level, with a self-sufficiency rate of less than 40%. Correspondingly, the domestic level of domestic high-end polyolefin catalyst market is also relatively low.

Currently, the foreign-funded companies that are developing the domestic polyolefin catalyst market include Sumitomo, Total, ExxonMobil, Asahi Kasei, Dow, BASF, LyondellBasell, etc.; the main local companies include Tripod, Sinopec, Shenhua Group, etc. Among them, Dingjide is a leading company in the domestic polyolefin catalyst industry. Currently, as leading companies accelerate product research and development and technology continues to mature, the domestic polyolefin catalyst market is accelerating in its localization process, and the industry shows good development prospects.

Industry analysts said that polyolefins, as a type of fine chemical raw materials with superior performance and wide application, are currently developing rapidly in their application fields. Driven by this, its output has shown continued growth. As a key raw material for polyolefin production, polyolefin catalysts have been expanding in market size driven by the rapid development of the domestic polyolefin market, and the industry has shown good development prospects. However, the degree of localization of domestic high-end polyolefin catalysts is still relatively low at present, and there is broad room for domestic substitution in the future market.