Is there excess capacity of polyurethane (PU), which is known as the "fifth largest plastic"? Huntsman Group (hereinafter referred to as "Huntsman"), the first global polyurethane giant to enter the Chinese market, is not very worried about this. "This industry has passed 50 or 60 years, but we can continue to see some newer innovation opportunities. For example, polyurethane has really formed a major application market in the pig industry, that is, two or three years." 12 On the 1st, Pan Lumin, President of Huntsman Polyurethanes Asia Pacific, said to the media.
The most recent new opportunities come from the fast-growing modern agriculture and warehousing links in the logistics cold chain. Huntsman takes food supply chain solutions as a new important force. Pan Lumin said, “Polyurethane will continue to develop new downstream and more sophisticated new technologies, and the market will continue to develop with it.” He mentioned, especially after the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, the food supply chain Safety and health have received more attention, and more and more people are beginning to worry about whether the world will face a food crisis after the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic crisis?
On the same day, Huntsman and HNCC Material Technology Group held the launch ceremony of the first batch of polyurethane continuous sheets based on Teluoyou polyester polyol. HNCC jointly developed with Huntsman. The new product is polyurethane based on Terol polyester polyol (mainly used for cold storage insulation materials). HNCC is responsible for the specific production of polyurethane continuous sheets and market promotion. This is Huntsman's first polyurethane continuous sheet project based on Terol polyester polyol in China.
In terms of thermal insulation, the use of polyurethane insulation panels produced by Terol can increase the thermal insulation of buildings by more than 50%; in terms of fire protection, Terol also has excellent fire and flame retardant properties. The B2 level is upgraded to the more stringent B1 level. Zhang Jun, Commercial Director of Huntsman's Polyurethane Division in China, said that polyurethane is currently the best insulation material on the market. "If you use a common cold storage to calculate, the electricity cost per square meter per day is about 1 yuan. A 10,000-square-meter cold storage requires more than 3 million in electricity bills a year. If you choose to use polyurethane insulation materials, you can save at least 20% of your electricity bills."
It is worth mentioning that Huntsman has previously developed recycled PET plastic recycling technology for the production of TEROL polyester polyols. Up to 60% of its ingredients come from recycled PET plastic.
In fact, just in May of this year, Huntsman established a new building solutions (HBS) business line. Since 2018, Huntsman has spent US$700 million to acquire two leading polyurethane spraying companies in North America and the world, Ange Energy Icynene Lapolla and Demilec, "joining Huntsman`s existing polyurethane business to integrate these three businesses. A new business line has been formed. After integration, we have become the fifth largest polyurethane coating company in the world." said Liu Xuehong, general manager of Huntsman Construction Solutions Asia Pacific.
Liu Xuehong said that there are two main opportunities for the establishment of construction solutions. "First of all, Huntsman's polyurethane strategy is going downstream. This is a very clear strategy for us. Spraying is a very large downstream application of polyurethane." It is optimistic about the global polyurethane insulation market. "We estimate that the global polyurethane insulation market is 800 billion U.S. dollars, and the annual growth rate is 5%-6%, so we think we need to deepen the polyurethane spray industry." She added. According to Tao, the growth platform in Asia is the most concerned in the world, coupled with the current demand for cold chains in Asia, "We feel that the establishment of such a business department at such a time is in line with the company's strategy and also in line with external market needs. "
The main markets for this new business line include cold chain warehousing, roof maintenance, building maintenance and insulation, etc. Liu Xuehong mentioned that Huntsman will focus on the cold chain industry in China and the Asia-Pacific region. “In the past, it was possible that the fruit owner invested a small cold storage by himself, and the butcher invested a small cold storage. High-end customers continue to appear, which puts forward very high requirements on the construction quality of cold storage.” She believes that the construction quality of cold storage is mainly reflected in two aspects. First, the insulation materials can be qualified first, and the insulation performance can be achieved. The perfect balance of flame retardant performance; the second is the quality of construction.
Liu Xuehong mentioned that from Huntsman's point of view, it can guarantee product quality and production process compliance in terms of raw materials. But she also emphasized that Huntsman will go beyond the original raw material supplier thinking.
"For the spraying construction unit, we will adopt the global uniform standard to conduct standardized training for the construction staff of the customer's construction team. Only after we have obtained our certification, we will recommend him as a qualified construction person to our Party A. In addition, we will communicate with users to let them know what qualified and good insulation materials are.” Liu Xuehong also mentioned that Huntsman will also work with all relevant parties to promote the improvement of the quality standards of polyurethane spraying in the entire cold chain industry.
Huntsman was founded in the United States in 1970 and its business covers chemicals, plastics, textiles, footwear, paints and coatings, construction materials, etc. In 2019, Huntsman's operating income was approximately US$7 billion, of which nearly half came from the polyurethane division. As the earliest global polyurethane giant to enter China, the company's current cumulative investment in China has exceeded 15 billion yuan.