Progress of China's petrochemical industry in 2012 and outlook for 2013

The progress of China's petrochemical industry under the conditions of high crude oil price and slowdown in economy in 2012 was summarized.Firstly,the running of petrochemical industry was slow but turning to smooth and steady;production output and value and gross profit were all increasing,but compared to the last year,the pace was slower.Secondly,in building a world-class petrochemical industry,crude oil processing volume,ethylene production output maintained the world second,chemical production compared with USA was roughly the same,synthetic resin production was in the forefront,synthetic rubber production ranked the first in the world. Thirdly,about the transformation and upgrading of petrochemical industry,modern coal chemical industry was smoothly integrated into petrochemical production system;petrochemical industry was involved in biomass utilization,and succeeded in trial production of aviation kerosene from biomass;a new progress was made in upgrading to high-end products.And finally,about technical progress,a batch of industrial units were built using proprietary technology,including two sets of diesel liquid phase circulation hydrogenation units in Shijiazhuang refinery and Jiujiang refinery,a new generation of S-Zorb unit for producing EU Ⅴ grade gasoline,800 kt/a ethylene cracking plant in Wuhan,S-MTO coal to olefin unit,FCC regeneration flue gas SCR denitrification unit in Zhenhai;a batch of technologies independently developed,including conversion of super heavy oil to light fractions,megaton per year integrated aromatics unit and syn-gas to ethylene glycol synthesis were ready for commercialization;the ebullated bed heavy residual oil hydrogenation technology was being commercial-scale verified;research on production differentiation technology was stepping up aiming at a number of special chemicals and new chemical materials.The petrochemical operation mode with Chinese characteristics under high crude oil price and low economy growth conditions was also emphasized,including refinery to adhere to cost reduction and resource allocation in a reasonable and optimized way;chemical sector to control in-service petrochemical production capacity and to adjust product mix,and actively implement differentiation strategy to cope with market demand.At the same time,some problems at a potential or deeper level in 2012 were also commented. Based on analysis of the situation in 2013,some better running conditions for petrochemical industry were noticed,such as gradual improvement of world economy,high level fluctuation of international oil price boosted by US economic data,China's macro economy to maintain steady running,warming up of domestic chemical market,it is expected that firstly,China's oil refining industry will continue to be in the booming business cycle,overall operation of China's petrochemical industry in 2013 will keep stabilized,and have a more optimistic outlook;secondly,upgrading of gasoline and diesel quality and upgrading to high-end petrochemical products will be speed up;thirdly,substitution of raw material for chemicals by coal,and creation of a new pattern of integration of coal,oil,chemical will be promoted;finally,transition of traditional petrochemical industry to energy chemical industry will be accelerated,and a new substantive progress will be made in the building of a world-class petrochemical industry.