News from the First Textile Network on March 7 (reported by reporter Martin): Today (March 7) evening, Xinwen Lianbo reported that Sinopec’s melt-blown non-woven production line was successfully started at the first time and produced qualified products.
As of March 6, Sinopec has supported 11.7 tons of meltblown cloth, 10 mask machines have been put into production, and qualified masks have been produced. It is expected that by March 10, with the subsequent mask machines put into production And the continuous release of production capacity will achieve the daily output target of 1 million pieces.
According to reports, the melt-blown non-woven production line put into production at Yanshan Petrochemical has an annual design production capacity of 14,400 tons, including two melt-blown Non-woven production lines, 3 spunbond production lines, can produce 4 tons of N95 melt-blown cloth or 6 tons of medical flat mask melt-blown cloth every day. These raw materials can produce 1.2 million pieces (4 tons × 300,000 pieces/ton) of N95 masks , or 6 million pieces (6 tons × 1 million pieces/ton) of medical flat masks.
Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, the use of masks across the country has surged. The melt-blown cloth required to produce high-standard masks such as N95 masks and medical protective masks has become a bottleneck in expanding mask production capacity. On February 24, Sinopec invested about 200 million yuan to step up the construction of melt-blown cloth production lines at two companies, Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical and Jiangsu Yizheng Chemical Fiber, to produce much-needed melt-blown cloth across borders.
There are media reports here that since the outbreak of the epidemic, the meltblown cloth market has soared from around 12,000 yuan/ton before the epidemic to 400,000 yuan/ton. The reason for the limited production capacity of melt-blown cloth is directly related to the “big at both ends and small in the middle” production capacity of the mask industry chain: after the rapid expansion of the production capacity of upstream melt-blown materials and downstream mask factories, the number of melt-blown cloth manufacturers in the midstream has increased. There are few. Melt-blown equipment is expensive and there are gaps in key components. The equipment delivery period is long, and it is difficult to quickly expand the production line.
It is understood that Sinopec invested approximately 200 million yuan this time to build production lines for melt-blown non-woven fabrics (i.e. melt-blown fabrics) and spunbond fabrics in Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical and Jiangsu Yizheng Chemical Fiber. Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical will build 2 melt-blown cloth production lines and 3 spun-bonded cloth production lines, which can produce 4 tons of N95 melt-blown cloth or 6 tons of medical flat mask melt-blown cloth every day. These raw materials can produce 1.2 million pieces (4 tons × 30 10,000 pieces/ton) N95 masks, or 6 million pieces (6 tons × 1 million pieces/ton) medical flat masks. In addition to melt-blown cloth, it can also produce 42 tons of spunbond cloth every day. Spunbond cloth is used for the inner and outer layers of masks and has the characteristics of UV resistance, good stability and breathability, and corrosion resistance.
The melt-blown non-woven production line put into production at Yanshan Petrochemical has an annual design production capacity of 14,400 tons, including two melt-blown non-woven fabrics Production lines, 3 spunbond fabric production lines, can produce 4 tons of N95 melt-blown fabric or 6 tons of medical flat mask melt-blown fabric every day. These raw materials can produce 1.2 million pieces (4 tons × 300,000 pieces/ton) of N95 masks, or 600 Ten thousand pieces (6 tons × 1 million pieces/ton) medical flat masks.
It is also understood that Sinopec has eight more meltblown cloth production lines that are accelerating preparations for construction in Yizheng, Jiangsu and are expected to be completed and put into operation in mid-April.
Dongxing Securities analyst Zhang Kailin previously said that medical masks are generally multi-layer structures, generally referred to as SMS. The material is spunbond nonwoven fabric + meltblown nonwoven fabric + spunbond nonwoven fabric. The inner layer can also be made of short fibers to improve the skin feel, that is, spunbond non-woven fabric + melt-blown non-woven fabric + spunbond non-woven fabric. The outer layer of the mask has an anti-droplet design, the middle layer is filtered, and the internal moisture absorption function is good. Meltblown cloth is generally 20 grams in weight. The N95 cup-shaped mask is composed of needle-punched cotton + melt-blown cloth + non-woven fabric. The melt-blown cloth usually weighs 40 grams or more. Coupled with the thickness of the needle-punched cotton, it looks better than a flat mask in appearance. Thicker, its protective effect can reach at least 95%.
From the perspective of mask materials, polypropylene high-melt non-woven special materials are the core material of masks. Produce polypropylene products with a melt mass flow rate of 33-41g/min, reaching hygiene standards for polypropylene non-woven fabrics. Highly soluble fiber is a product produced by refining and chemical companies. After the outbreak, refining and chemical companies quickly changed their production plans to ensure full supply. It is understood that there are currently 31 domestic high-melt fiber manufacturers. The annual high-melt fiber output in 2019 was about 880,000 tons. One ton of high-melt fiber material can produce about 250,000 germ protective masks. Spunbond non-woven fabric is the most commonly used material, and its production technology is less difficult than melt-blown non-woven fabric. In general, the production of medical masks must comprehensively consider the thickness distribution of the S layer and the M layer, and take into account both barrier properties and unobstructed breathing, which has certain technical difficulties.
From the perspective of application scope: different production processes have different characteristics, and their downstream applications also have significant differences. Divided by product use structure, medical and health care is the largest use of non-woven fabrics, accounting for 41%. In recent years, with the increasing awareness of downstream consumption upgrades, the penetration rate of cotton towels, facial wipes, facial masks and other categories has increased, which is an important force in the development of non-woven fabrics.
Zhang Kailin believes that the demand for masks is an important force driving the demand for non-woven fabrics in the future, while consumption upgrades are a long-term driving force. From observation, it is best to use it in the production of non-woven fabrics.The most important raw materials are polypropylene (accounting for 63% of the total), followed by polyester (accounting for 23% of the total) and viscose fiber (accounting for 8% of the total); from the perspective of non-woven fabric uses, medical and health care is the most important non-woven fabric. Cloth is the largest use, accounting for 41%. Driven by this epidemic, the growth of non-woven fabrics will definitely exceed previous expectations. In addition to medical demand, areas where the demand for non-woven fabrics is growing rapidly include: sanitary napkins, baby diapers, adult incontinence products and other cleaning and wiping products.
Zhang Kailin previously introduced that from the supply side, the production capacity of melt-blown cloth is limited. In 2018, my country’s melt-blown non-woven fabric production capacity was 83,240 tons, and the actual output was 53,523 tons. The actual output of melt-blown cloth It accounts for only about 1% of the overall non-woven market. The expansion cycle of meltblown cloth and mask production lines will be relatively long. In addition, the production start-up is not smooth under the epidemic situation.
From the demand side, domestic + foreign demand is huge. Zhang Kailin estimates that first of all, from a domestic perspective, the total labor force population aged 16-59 in the country reached 897 million in 2018, accounting for 6.43% of the total population. %, and the total employed population reached 780 million. Assuming that 50% of the employed population resumes work in the workplace/factory in March, and each person consumes one mask per day, the price of the mask is calculated as 3 yuan/piece (the current price of the masks allocated by the government from Shandong is about 1.5 yuan each, with an additional subsidy of 0.2 yuan (about 4 yuan each in Beijing, and about 3 yuan each in Shanghai and Hubei), the monthly demand for masks is 11.7 billion, and the total demand is 35.1 billion. This is only the data for March. If you wear a mask If the life lasts until the end of April, it will be doubled.
Abroad, as the epidemic escalates, China, as a country with a large mask production capacity, is expected to assume the heavy responsibility of global mask production on the basis of meeting domestic demand.
In Zhang Kailin’s view, since the outbreak of the epidemic, the inventory of mask products in various domestic provinces has been rapidly running out, and it is difficult to balance the supply and demand of masks in the short term. The National Health Commission also stated that residents wearing masks are expected to continue until April, and it is expected that if people have strong subjective protection, it is expected to last longer. At the same time, as foreign epidemics are still on the rise, many foreign countries have also seen tight demand for masks. Some organizations predict that the peak of foreign epidemics will be delayed by 1 to 5 months compared with the Chinese epidemic. In summary, domestic and foreign demand It is expected to remain high for some time.
Public information shows that Sinopec is China’s largest producer of petroleum products (including gasoline, diesel, aviation kerosene, etc.) and major petrochemical products (including synthetic resins, synthetic fiber monomers and polymers, synthetic fibers, synthetic Rubber, fertilizers and intermediate petrochemicals) manufacturer and supplier, and is China’s second largest crude oil producer.
In the first three quarters of 2019, Sinopec achieved operating income of 2.2333 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.7%; net profit was 43.281 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 27.8%. </p
