The national standard "GB/T 41010-2021 Biodegradable Plastics and Products Degradation Performance and Labeling Requirements" will be implemented in June

On February 23, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Liu Youbin, said that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, based on its own responsibilities, actively strengthens the management of plastic pollution, actively participates in and promotes the strengthening of the control over the transboundary movement of plastic waste under the existing mechanism of the Basel Convention, and promotes the Conference of the Parties.
Improve the level of environmentally sound management of plastic waste through the Basel Convention on Plastic Waste Amendments
.

It is worth noting that previously, the State Administration for Market Regulation formulated and issued the national standard "Biodegradable Plastics and Products Degradation Performance and Labeling Requirements", which will be officially implemented on June 1, 2022, and degradable plastics may usher in opportunities
.

Degradable plastics are still in the blue ocean market

After the introduction of the "plastic ban" in 2020, the degradable plastic market, which is an alternative to traditional plastics, has grown substantially
.
Industry insiders predict that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the annual compound growth rate of the degradable plastics market will be 11.
3%, and by 2025, it will achieve an income scale of more than 50 billion yuan
.

Figure 1 Forecast of the release rhythm of future market demand for degradable plastics (10,000 tons)

The Capital Securities Research Report believes that biodegradable plastics companies have entered a period of performance realization
.
According to estimates, by 2025, there will be a huge gap in the corresponding domestic biodegradable plastic market, which is a typical blue ocean market
.
With the strengthening of policies and the continuous expansion of the application of degradable plastics, this market demand will be released to a greater extent
.

There are companies with 3 billion overweight in the field of degradable plastics

On the evening of February 22, a fixed increase announcement disclosed by Yuxin shares showed that the company plans to raise no more than 3 billion yuan through non-public offering of shares, which will be used for the first phase of the comprehensive utilization project of light hydrocarbons and to supplement working capital
.
It should be pointed out that the main products of this fundraising project are the important raw materials or direct components of degradable plastics
.

Specifically, Yuxin Co.
, Ltd.
plans to invest 2.
7 billion yuan of investment funds in the first phase of the light hydrocarbon comprehensive utilization project.
The implementation site of the raised investment project is Huizhou New Materials Industrial Park
.
The company pointed out that the main products of the project "Phase I of Light Hydrocarbon Comprehensive Utilization Project" are the important raw materials or direct components of degradable plastics
.
After the project is completed, it will provide the company with 147,600 tons/year of dimethyl succinate (DMS), 34,200 tons/year of 1,4-butanediol (BDO), 46,000 tons/year of polytetrahydrofuran (PTMEG) and The new product production capacity of 60,000 tons/year of polybutylene succinate (PBS) promotes the rapid development of the company's chemical new material business, and further realizes the company's transformation from a petrochemical product leading enterprise to a petrochemical product and chemical new material product comprehensive enterprise.
Strategic transformation, and then improve the company's product structure, expand the company's development space, enhance the company's profitability, and consolidate the company's leading position in the industry
.

According to Huaxi Securities, the main raw materials of mainstream degradable plastics are PLA (polylactic acid) and PBAT (polybutylene terephthalate-adipate)
.
PLA has high technical barriers, and companies with core technologies will fully benefit from the dividends brought by demand growth; PBAT's existing production capacity is not much, but it is expected that the new annual production capacity will exceed 7 million tons in the future.
Industrial support and cost are the core competitiveness of enterprises
.

Huatai Securities believes that the domestic market of degradable plastics has a broad alternative space, and PBAT/PLA is the main variety
.
According to calculations, taking the data in 2018 as an example, the consumption of disposable plastics in the fields of lunch boxes and plastic bags in China reached 5.
945 million tons.
Assuming a 30% replacement ratio, the consumption of degradable plastics is close to 1.
8 million tons
.
From the perspective of technical maturity and cost performance, PBAT/PLA are the main raw materials of soft (mostly used in plastic bags)/hard (mostly used in lunch boxes, etc.
) products, and starch-based plastics are mainly used for compounding.
The current price of PBAT/PLA is about 2-4 times that of PE/PP/PS plastics, so the demand mainly depends on policy promotion
.