In the first half of this year, the downstream demand of the liquid chlorine market in the country was weak, and the price showed a trend of rising first and then decreasing.
In January, due to better markets such as epichlorohydrin and chlorinated benzene, the demand for liquid chlorine was relatively large, resulting in a temporary imbalance in supply and demand in the liquid chlorine market, thus driving prices higher; in February, the domestic liquid chlorine market remained relatively stable overall. In the situation, the chlorine products in the northeast and southwest regions recovered after the holiday and the liquid chlorine market increased. In March, it was the traditional sales season in the domestic liquid chlorine market. The demand for liquid chlorine from pesticides and other bulk chlorine products surged, resulting in liquid chlorine prices. Generally speaking, in late April, as the operating rate of pesticides, disinfectants and other industries in the downstream of liquid chlorine gradually decreased, the price of liquid chlorine began to decline in some areas, and the price cuts spread from the north to the south, except for the liquid chlorine in Shandong, Zhejiang, southwest, and southern China. The prices were still maintained, and other regions were significantly reduced. In May, due to long vacations, downstream consumption contracted. Some chlor-alkali enterprises stopped production and maintenance, and liquid chlorine resources decreased. In the second half of the month, due to the hot downstream chlorine products, the chlor-alkali enterprises had liquid chlorine. As the amount of self-use increased, the decrease in commercial chlorine led to the liquid chlorine market to stop falling and stabilize; in June, the domestic liquid chlorine market was generally in a stable and decreasing pattern.
According to the National Chlor-alkali Industry Information Center's incomplete statistics on 185 chlor-alkali enterprises, caustic soda is expected to expand 3.94 million tons in 2006, and will actually increase production capacity by about 2.9 million tons by the end of the year. The total production capacity in the country will reach 18.864 million tons. Chlorine is a product produced by simultaneous electrolysis of caustic soda with caustic soda. A ton of caustic soda produces 0.88 tons of chlorine. Based on this calculation, the national chlorine production capacity will reach 16.408 million tons this year. Chlorine is the first product chain that chlor-alkali companies rely on to survive. Chlor-alkali companies profit mainly from the deep processing of chlorine products. Only when the company can't completely digest it, it can be liquefied and sold as liquid chlorine.
At present, there are more than 220 chlor-alkali enterprises across the country, but only 150 chlor-alkali enterprises have liquid chlorine sales. In the first half of 2006, the total chlorine production in China was 6.142 million tons, and the sales volume of commercial chlorine was only 16.6344 million tons. The sales volume accounted for 26.64% of the total output.
Chlorine products are a huge "family." At present, China can produce more than 200 kinds of chlorine products, the main varieties of more than 70. In recent years, many chlor-alkali enterprises in China have used petrochemical products as raw materials to develop organic chlorine products and gradually replaced the route of using coal tar and agricultural and sideline products as raw materials. The current representative chlorine products include PVC, hydrochloric acid, methane chloride, chlorinated paraffin, propylene oxide, nitrochlorobenzene, and polyaluminum chloride.
PVC is the largest consumption of chlorine products. From January to June, China's PVC output was 3,875,200 tons. After deducting the impact of imported VCM and EDC, the actual consumption of chlorine was about 2.45 million tons, accounting for about 38% of the total output of liquid chlorine.
Hydrochloric acid is the largest inorganic consumption of chlorine products. From January to June, the output was 3.5244 million tons. After deducting the production of hydrochloric acid by-produced in the fertilizer industry, the actual consumption of chlorine was approximately 1.09 million tons, accounting for 15.6% of the total output of liquid chlorine. Chlorine does not liquefy about 20% of the chlorine in the process of liquefaction. In addition, the treatment of excess chlorine in all chlorination reactions must be mixed with hydrogen to produce synthetic hydrochloric acid. Therefore, the production of hydrochloric acid is an important process for chlor-alkali enterprises to adjust chlorine balance. The consumption season of liquid chlorine is high in the summer, and the consumption season of hydrochloric acid is in winter. The hydrochloric acid market and the liquid chlorine market are highly complementary.
The peak demand season in the chemical market is usually in the second quarter, but this year chemical products appear anomalous, and chlor-alkali products begin to decline in price during the peak sales season. It is expected that the price of liquid chlorine will rebound slightly in September and October, and prices will gradually decline in November. The reason is: June and July are the peak period of caustic soda expansion, but the supporting chlorine and other chlorine-consuming product devices can not be put into production simultaneously, generally lagging for 2 to 3 months. Once the supporting chlorine consumption device is put into production, the commercial chlorine will be reduced. In addition, among the many chlorine products, prices have risen and fell, because of the difference in their weight, they have different effects on the market trend of liquid chlorine, and the proportion of chlorine consumed by pesticide series products is relatively large, so the market for liquid chlorine has a greater impact. Because seasonally strong chlorine-consuming products still have peak processing times in September and October, the price of liquid chlorine will increase.