Analysis on the current situation of PVC market prepared by calcium carbide in China in 2022

Calcium carbide method is popular

According to the data disclosed by China Chlor Alkali Industry Association, the mainstream method of PVC in China in 2020 is calcium carbide method, which accounts for 79% of PVC. The reason is that China's output of calcium carbide is high and raw materials are easy to obtain. At the same time, the technology of calcium carbide method is relatively mature and the investment scale is relatively small. The proportion of PVC produced by ethylene method is 21%.

PVC calcium carbide manufacturing process

At present, the main manufacturing process of PVC calcium carbide method is that calcium carbide reacts with water to produce acetylene, and hydrogen chloride is obtained after salt electrolysis. Hydrogen chloride reacts with acetylene to produce vinyl chloride, and vinyl chloride is polymerized to produce PVC.

The cost of calcium carbide method is relatively high

The cost of calcium carbide method is mainly composed of calcium carbide cost, hydrogen chloride cost and water and electricity cost. The national standard stipulates that the production of 1 ton of PVC consumes about 1.45-1.5 tons of calcium carbide, 0.75-0.85 tons of hydrogen chloride gas, and the power consumption per ton is about 450-500kw · h. There are other project expenses, such as packaging fee, initiator, dispersant, water fee, etc. Generally speaking, the cost composition and distribution proportion of calcium carbide method is about 65-70%, 15% of hydrogen chloride, 6% of electricity and 6% of other manufacturing expenses.

The output of calcium carbide is on the rise

According to the data released by Chlor Alkali Industry Association, China's calcium carbide output showed a fluctuating growth trend from 2014 to 2019. In 2020, the output of calcium carbide in China will be 27.57 million tons, an increase over 2019.

Main representative companies of calcium carbide method and their production capacity

China's leading PVC enterprises mostly use calcium carbide method to manufacture PVC. Their representative enterprises include Zhongtai chemical, Xinjiang Tianye and Beiyuan chemical, and their PVC production capacity is more than 1 million tons. Most of these companies are distributed in Northwest China, which is the main production area of calcium carbide in China, close to the origin of raw materials; At the same time, with the encouragement of policies, the development of PVC enterprises inland has become the mainstream trend. However, due to the high pollution and energy consumption of calcium carbide method, the future development trend of such enterprises is to reasonably plan production capacity and save energy and reduce consumption.