The introduction

Nylon 66 chemical name is polyhexamethylene diamine, industrial abbreviation PA66, is a translucent or opaque opalescent resin, structural formula is [-- NH (CH2) 6NHCO (CH2) 4CO-] N, 66 in the name of the unit chain, respectively, the number of carbon atoms of acid and amine. On February 28, 1935, Carothers synthesized nylon for the first time in the laboratory. On October 27, 1938, DuPont Company officially announced the birth of the first synthetic fiber in the world and named it nylon. On October 24, 1939, DuPont officially began to sell its nylon product -- nylon silk stockings at its headquarters. From the outbreak of the Second World War until 1945, nylon industrial steering parachute, aircraft tire cord fabric, military uniforms and other military products, nylon 66 has been widely used in many fields, such as auto parts, electric and electronic devices, machinery industry, precision instruments and so on.

In industry, nylon 66 is generally produced by polycondensation of adipic acid and adipic diamine.

1 Development status of nylon 66 in the world

Nylon 66 in 1939 to achieve industrialization and is widely used in chemical and engineering plastics field, especially in recent 10 years, the world of nylon consumption at an average annual growth rate is about 7.5%, global nylon 66 polymer output of 2.16 million tons in 2012, due to high technology, and investment threshold, presents the oligopoly market structure, industry concentration is higher.

The production technology and production scale of nylon 66 are mainly concentrated in the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Taiwan and other developed countries and regions, and the main manufacturers of nylon 66 are Invidia, DuPont, Sono, Rhodia, BASF, Landage, Asahi, etc. Among them, invista, which has the largest production scale, accounts for about 40% of the global nylon 66 polymer production capacity, while the top five companies in the production capacity occupy more than 80% of the global market share, and the top three companies in the industry -- Invista, Rhodia and Sunostra occupy the global monopoly position. The advanced production technology of adiponitrile, one of the main raw materials, is currently controlled by invidia, Rhodia and other companies, especially invidia almost monopolized the global trade of adiponitrile. However, in Asia, the fastest growing region of the global economy, there is a serious shortage of production capacity. In particular, China has become a net input region of adiponitrile, diamine and slices. Global distribution of major nylon 66 production capacity.

From the perspective of the whole industry, nylon 66, as a mature industry, its demand growth is basically consistent with the global economic growth. See Table 2 for the statistics and forecast of the annual growth of global nylon 66 products and related intermediate products from 2012 to 2022. It is expected that the annual growth rate of global nylon 66 production capacity will be 3.4% by 2022.

Development status of nylon 66 in China

The research and development of PA66 in China began in the 1950s. At that time, there were 30 or 40 units of PA66 small-scale test and medium-sized test research. Finally, Shanghai Tianyuan Chemical Plant was the only one to realize industrialization, which built a kiloton level PA66 production plant with phenol as raw material. In 1975, Liaoyang Petrochemical Fiber Company introduced technology and equipment from France's Rhone Poulenc company, and its PA66 salt plant of 45,000 tons/year was built and put into operation in L982. Later, it expanded 50,000 tons/year PA66 salt, and the total output reached l0 million tons/year, making it the largest PA66 salt production plant in China. In 1997, China Wha Group introduced the technology from Japan Asahi Chemical Company and built a PA66 salt production plant with 65,000 tons/year, which is the PA66 salt production plant with the most complete process in the world (see the dotted box in Figure 1). The main raw materials of the project are adiponitrile and benzene, adiponitrile through hydrogenation catalysis, refining to produce adiponitrile diamine; Benzene was partially hydrogenated to cyclohexene, which was then catalyzed by hydration to cyclohexanol, which was oxidized to adipic acid by nitric acid, and the reaction of adipic acid with adipic acid produced nylon 66 salt. As the main raw material, adiponitrile can only be purchased from a few large foreign companies, so they can control the global production of nylon 66 by adjusting the supply of adiponitrile.

In 1998, the national industrial policy announced the nylon 66 and its products, engineering plastics and plastic alloys included in the list of key development, nylon 66 market showed a good momentum of rapid development. With the development of China's chemical fiber, machinery, electronics, instruments, instruments and other fields, nylon 66 will be applied to a broader field, especially the rapid development of China's engineering plastics, nylon 66 provides a good space for the development. At present, domestic nylon 66 and intermediate production capacity distribution.

Current global nylon 66 industry development trend

After decades of development, nylon industry in western developed countries has been relatively mature in scale and technology. At present, the European and American markets are dominated by high value-added products such as engineering plastics, film and carpet filament. Developed countries, while focusing on high value-added products, are gradually peeling off the application production of textile filament and industrial filament, which are weak in profits, and shifting to developing countries. In terms of industrial filament, as the road system in Asia is not developed enough, the heavy load tire needs the support of nylon cord cloth, and the global procurement strategy of the world's big tire companies causes Japan, the United States and other developed countries to transfer the tire production to foreign countries. In addition, textile filament and industrial filament profit is relatively weak, so some developed countries will be textile filament and industrial filament application production gradually transferred to China, India and other developing countries.

On October 8, 2008, Rhodia's official website announced the permanent closure of its nylon 66 polymerization plant in Ceriano, Italy, with an annual capacity of 45,000 tons.

In March 2009, Invista permanently closed its nylon 66 adipate plant in Wilton, UK, which had a nylon 66 slicing-capacity of 180,000 tons/year, accounting for 6.61% of the world's total production capacity. Adipic acid production capacity 270,000 tons/year, accounting for 8.48% of the global total production capacity. Invista also closed a Plant in Merante, Canada; a plant in Orange County, Texas; and an adipic acid plant in Singapore. On June 1, 2009, SK Corporation investment Partners successfully acquired the integrated nylon business of Sonuo. The acquisition included 435,000 tons/year nylon 66 polymerization capacity, accounting for 16% of the global total production capacity. Adipic acid production capacity of 350,000 tons/year, accounting for 11% of the global total production capacity.

On February 1, 2013, Invision received approval to build a large-scale raw material plant in Shanghai. The company stated that the new project could eventually include annual production of 200,000 tons of hdiamine, 300,000 tons of adiponitrile, and 100,000 to 150,000 tons of nylon 66 slices. Production of hdiamine is expected to begin in 2015.

Produced by the above several international PA66 leading enterprises in recent years, the action as you can see, at present has formed the western leading high-end market, the trend of low-end products production eastwards, and the developing countries nylon industry has made great development, some of the world's big companies in Asia, nylon drifting off to the region of origin.

According to the Maack Group of Switzerland and the Radici Group of Italy, global demand for polyamide is expected to grow by 2.5% a year and will soon exceed 4m tonnes a year. Most of the increase in demand came from China, Russia, India and Brazil. China, in particular, has seen rapid growth in nylon production and demand. From 2000 to 2003, China's demand for nylon grew 15.5 percent annually, and from 2003 to 2010, China's demand for nylon grew from 794,000 tons to 1.25 million tons. At present, the average annual consumption of polyamide in these four countries is less than 400 grams, while the average annual consumption of polyamide in the United States has reached 1 kilogram, so the demand for polyamide in developing countries has a lot of room to grow.

From the current global nylon 66 industry production capacity distribution and the investment direction of the major companies, the rapid economic growth of China and Asia is becoming the main growth region of the nylon 66 industry in the future, China is becoming the key region of the major multinational companies nylon 66 investment. China's nylon 66 industry in carrying the international nylon giant restructuring or transfer affairs to seek new development, domestic industry to improve the industrial chain at the same time, it should also be noted that there are unlimited business opportunities.

Suggestions for the development of domestic nylon 66 industry

The supply of adiponitrile, the main raw material of PA66 industry in China, is the bottleneck that restricts the expansion of production capacity and the pursuit of scale benefit. In terms of product market, there are foreign high-end products extrusion, low end nylon 6 and other low-cost alternative products continue to occupy. If PA66 products want to break out of such a state of both ends, the problems of product innovation, capacity expansion and cost reduction must be solved.

Through comparison and analysis, the author has the following opinions on the development of domestic nylon 66 industry:

(1) aiming at domestic PA66 industry technology and equipment level is relatively low, the product structure is not reasonable, the operation and management level and labor productivity is not high, low industrial concentration, problems such as unbalanced regional development, under the national macro policy guidance, the introduction of private capital to participate in market competition, to carry on the structure and product integration, make industry aircraft carrier, achieve economies of scale, Further reduce costs. Using the existing complete industrial chain from nylon modification, additives, plastic machine molds, processing and application and the corresponding basis, without sacrificing the price, we will maximize the recapture of the domestic market occupied by alternative products such as nylon 6, and strive to occupy or expand the PA66 product market in other developing countries.

(2) At present, state-owned enterprises are still the leader of domestic PA66 industry. In terms of high-end product market and product innovation, the mechanism is not flexible enough, and r&d investment is insufficient. It is necessary to have the courage to compete with foreign PA66 monopoly enterprises. Based on the enterprise existing production equipment platform, increase investment in scientific research innovation, with domestic universities and colleges, scientific research institutes for joint development and technical research, to grasp the part of the new technology with independent intellectual property rights and high performance products, breaking the foreign enterprises technological monopoly, high-end product market occupy a place in the international PA66

The land.

(3) The technical source of adiponitrile, which affects the expansion of adipic diamine capacity and the digestion of adipic acid capacity, is the bottleneck of the development of the current domestic nylon industry chain. Through the supply of adiponitrile, foreign monopoly enterprises can almost easily control the whole nylon industry chain in China. Only by breaking through this technical problem of raw materials and getting rid of dependence on foreign raw materials and technologies can China's nylon industry develop rapidly and healthily. China has been a member of WTO for several years. With the continuous improvement of China's comprehensive national strength, we should carefully study and judge WTO trade rules, apply them flexibly, and require developed countries to gradually eliminate technological monopoly and trade barriers. At the same time, take advantage of the opportunity of the world nylon production area to Asia, especially China, to realize the transfer of technology and re-innovation. Strive for independent or joint venture construction of adiponitrile production plant, open the domestic PA66 industry development bottleneck.

(4) In recent years, influenced by the oversupply in the domestic market and the low demand of the downstream industry, the price of nylon 66 products has a great downward pressure, and the energy price is in the rising channel, and the pressure of rising cost is difficult to transfer to the downstream. With the gradual recovery of the world economy, as well as the new economic policies of the third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the domestic small and medium-sized enterprises have ushered in new opportunities for development, and the PA66 downstream industry will also flourish. The author believes that the market surplus of domestic PA66 related products will be digested in a short period of six months to one year. However, the manufacturers of nylon 66 products should continue to develop new modified and improved products, expand the application fields, and constantly explore and cultivate new application markets, so that the enterprises can embark on the road of healthy development.