Recently, Polyplastics decided to build a new polymerization plant with an annual output of 5,000 tons of LCP in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It is understood that the project is constructed by Polyplastics Taiwan Co., Ltd. (PTW factory) and is expected to be put into production in the first half of 2024. The PTW plant is a joint venture company invested by Polyplastics (75% investment) and Changchun Group (25% investment) to produce and sell engineering plastics. It is headquartered in Taipei and the factory is located in Kaohsiung. Changchun Group is the second largest petrochemical enterprise in Taiwan, China. Its new chemical material products include liquid crystal polymer LCP, polyvinyl alcohol PVA, epoxy resin, PBAT, PBT, PBS, polyvinyl butyral (PVB) film, and polysulfone. PSU, thermoplastic polyester elastomer TPEE, polyethersulfone PES, etc. Polyplastics was established in 1964 and is the largest LCP manufacturer in Japan. Its new chemical materials products mainly include POM, PBT, LCP, PPS, cyclic olefin copolymer COC, etc. Polyplastics has an LCP polymerization plant with an annual output of 15,000 tons at the Fuji plant, while PTW has been responsible for the production of LCP product compounding processes. With the new establishment of the LCP polymerization plant, PTW can realize the one-stop production of LCP products from polymerization to composite. In the future, Polyplastics will also expand PTW's LCP polymerization plant. With this, Polyplastics will achieve an annual production capacity of 25,000 tons of LCP polymerization capacity.
The development status and pattern of LCP resin
At present, the global production capacity of liquid crystal polymers is about 78,000 tons/year, concentrated in the United States, Japan and China. Among them, American and Japanese companies account for about 80% of the world's total production capacity, and China only accounts for about 20%. Major overseas production companies include Celanese, Polyplastics, Sumitomo, Solvay, Toray, etc. Among them, Celanese and Polyplastics each account for more than half of the production capacity of the United States and Japan, and the industry is highly concentrated.
U.S. and Japanese companies began mass production of LCP materials in the 1980s. China entered the LCP field late and relied on imports from the U.S. and Japan for a long time. In recent years, as GZJF, SHPL, SZWT, NBJJ and other companies have put into production one after another, the production capacity of LCP materials has grown rapidly. As of 2020, China’s LCP production capacity will reach 18,000 tons/year. Among them, SZWT is China’s largest LCP manufacturer. In 2020, SZWT will add 5,000 tons of LCP production capacity and put into operation, with a total production capacity of 8,000 tons per year, accounting for about 45% of China's total production capacity.