Is the polyester industrial yarn market “rejuvenating”?

From automobile tire cord fabrics to geotechnical materials and marine cables, the application scenarios of polyester industrial yarn are very diverse. After experiencing the stressful market last year, this year, the operation of the polyester industrial yarn industry has shown a stabilizing and improving trend. On the one hand, my country's polyester industrial yarn enterprises have worked hard to improve their internal strength, increase the added value and differentiation level of their products, and carry out intelligent upgrades to continuously improve their comprehensive competitiveness. On the other hand, leading enterprises may layout the Vietnamese market, optimize the international production capacity layout, or actively explore diversified export markets to enhance their voice in the international market. Faced with a complex and changing market environment, my country's polyester industrial yarn industry and enterprises have shown strong innovation vitality and development resilience.

The scale of the polyester industrial yarn industry has continued to grow in recent years. According to Longzhong Information data, in 2024, my country's polyester industrial yarn output will be 2.207 million tons, an increase of 8.1% year-on-year.

At the same time, market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Last year, the industry was under pressure, corporate profits declined, and some companies suffered losses, but the comprehensive competitive advantages of leading companies were relatively obvious.

Jiangsu Hengli Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hengli Chemical Fiber") has an annual production capacity of 800,000 tons of polyester industrial yarn, and its production and sales scale ranks first in the world. Its polyester industrial yarn supply accounts for 1/3 of the world.

Shan Qianghong, deputy general manager of Hengli Chemical Fiber, introduced that the company's polyester industrial yarn has the advantage of the whole industrial chain. Hengli Group has built a full industrial chain system of "from a drop of oil to a piece of cloth", realizing upstream and downstream collaboration, and ensuring the self-sufficiency of raw materials and strong cost control capabilities of industrial yarn. In the field of high-performance polyester industrial yarn, the company has formed a technical barrier and developed high-performance low-elongation products, imitation high-modulus yarn and imitation nylon yarn, flame-retardant industrial yarn (including black), seat belt yarn (including black), 1000D ultra-low shrinkage yarn, anti-wicking yarn, and ultra-high strength yarn, which has improved the product differentiation rate and basically achieved full coverage of polyester industrial yarn products.

In 2024, Hengli Chemical Fiber's polyester industrial yarn output will be 666,000 tons, and the production and sales rate will be 99.1%.

Zhejiang Guxiandao Green Fiber Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Guxiandao") has an annual production capacity of about 680,000 tons, 70% of its products are sold domestically, and 30% are exported to the EU, ASEAN, South America, North America and other regions, accounting for about 20% of the global polyester industrial yarn market share.

Jin Ge, Executive Vice President of Guxiandao, introduced: "The company has scale and technological advantages. The company's liquid phase viscosity-enhancing melt direct spinning technology is the first in China and the world leader. It won the second prize of the National Technological Invention Award in 2016. Compared with traditional solid phase viscosity-enhancing technology, the industrial application of this technology has reduced the company's comprehensive energy consumption by about 30%. Last year, although the polyester industrial yarn market was generally sluggish, the company's operations were relatively stable."

Zhejiang Hailide New Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Halide") has an annual production capacity of 320,000 tons of polyester industrial yarn, forming an industrial chain of "chip-polyester industrial yarn-polyester cord fabric". Hailide optimizes the product structure of industrial yarns, keeps a close eye on products with high technical content and high added value, and improves the product differentiation rate. At the same time, its physical and chemical regenerated industrial yarns are supplied in batches. In 2024, Hailide achieved operating income of 5.901 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.96%; net profit was 411 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.58%, of which polyester industrial yarn revenue was 2.754 billion yuan, accounting for 46% of total revenue.

How is the market situation this year? In the first quarter, Hailide expects to achieve a net profit of 120 million yuan to 150 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 60.6% to 100.75%.

"In the current environment, companies should strengthen their judgment of the market situation and reasonably control inventory; they should invest rationally to avoid further highlighting of supply and demand contradictions; they should focus on new product research and development and new market expansion." Jin Ge said, "In 2025, the industry will have no new production capacity, supply and demand will be relatively balanced, and the market situation will be significantly better than last year.

The polyester industrial yarn market is showing signs of differentiation. On the one hand, ordinary products are facing homogeneity, supply and demand contradictions are prominent, and product profitability is weakening. On the other hand, differentiated products show strong competitiveness. Enterprises generally realize that the key to improving core competitiveness is to increase technological innovation and continuously increase the proportion of differentiated products. Hengli Chemical Fiber vigorously develops new products and continuously improves its product structure. Yang Damao, manager of its industrial yarn department, introduced: "This year, we continue to increase the output of colored industrial yarns, flame-retardant industrial yarns, seat belt yarns, airbag yarns and other products. At present, high-modulus and low-shrinkage yarns are fully produced and sold, and we will further increase the output of imitation high-modulus, imitation nylon, ultra-high strength, and high-performance low-elongation industrial yarns."

Guxiandao attaches great importance to R&D investment, technological innovation and product upgrades, and has formed advantages in product structure. In recent years, the market share of its high-gross-profit-margin varieties such as activated yarn, parallel twisted yarn, ultra-high-strength yarn, ultra-low shrinkage yarn, marine cable yarn, colored yarn, anti-wicking yarn, and ultra-fine denier yarn has continued to increase. Yang Zhichao, chief engineer of Guxiandao, introduced: "This year, the company's product research and development is mainly aimed at marine cable yarn, recycled yarn, environmentally friendly membrane-grade slices, highway flexible guardrails and other fields, focusing on expanding the market in the fields of marine engineering and transportation engineering."

Digitalization and intelligence are another key point for enterprises to improve quality and efficiency.

Relevant statistics show that in recent years, the annual demand for polyester industrial yarn has maintained a growth rate of 5%-8%.