Analysis of Southeast Asian Chemical Market (2)

The analysis of the Southeast Asian chemical market bears more responsibility for the potential consumer market of Chinese chemical exports. Throughout the global chemical market, Southeast Asia has become a new driving force for global chemical consumption growth. As a manufacturing and processing base in Europe and North America, Southeast Asia's manufacturing and processing industry has developed rapidly in recent years, expanding the scale and level of chemical consumption for the Southeast Asian market.

(1) Sodium sulfate is the largest chemical exported from China to Vietnam

According to Chinese customs statistics, among the chemicals exported by China to Vietnam in 2022, the scale of sodium sulfate exceeded 420000 tons, making it the largest chemical product exported by China to Vietnam. Sodium sulfate, also known as anhydrous sodium sulfate, is a salt formed by the combination of sulfate ions and sodium ions. White, odorless, bitter crystalline or powder with hygroscopicity. The appearance is colorless, transparent, large crystals or granular small crystals. Sodium sulfate is prone to absorb water when exposed to air, resulting in the formation of sodium sulfate decahydrate, also known as mirabilite. Glauber's salt is mainly used to manufacture water glass, glass, enamel, pulp, refrigeration mixture, detergent, desiccant, dye diluent, Analytical chemistry reagent, medicine, feed, etc. It is mainly used in glass manufacturers, with a wide range of applications.

The scale of China's sodium sulfate industry is huge, with over a thousand sodium sulfate production enterprises, and the industry competitiveness is severe. In order to alleviate domestic conflicts, China exports a large amount of sodium sulfate every year, with Vietnam being an important export market. In addition to sodium sulfate, photovoltaic glass is also an important product exported from China to Vietnam.

The local consumption of sodium sulfate in Vietnam is more concentrated in Glass production, enamel, pulp, etc., of which the production of glass and pulp is the largest direction of local consumption of sodium sulfate. There are many local pulp enterprises in Vietnam, but due to the lack of strict environmental requirements, many Chinese business owners have built pulp factories in Vietnam, mostly using American waste as pulp raw material for production, resulting in a huge demand for sodium sulfate.

(2) The export volume of Chinese ammonium chloride to Vietnam is relatively large

According to Chinese customs statistics, the scale of ammonium chloride exported from China to Vietnam in 2022 exceeded 420000 tons, which is not much different from the amount of sodium sulfate powder and is also one of the chemicals with a large export volume. Ammonium chloride, referred to as chloramine for short, refers to the ammonium salt of hydrochloric acid, which is mostly a by-product of the alkali manufacturing industry. Ammonium chloride has a high and stable fertilizer effect when used in paddy fields, because chlorine can not only inhibit the Nitrification of paddy fields, but also is conducive to the formation of rice stem fiber, increase toughness, and reduce rice lodging and insect invasion.

The local cultivation scale in Vietnam is huge, and there is a large demand for fertilizers. Ammonium chloride is an important type. Ammonium chloride shows a significant surplus in China's chemical supply, and exports are the main direction of ammonium chloride, with Vietnam being an important exporting country. For the future, the supply side of ammonium chloride in China is growing slowly, but Vietnam's consumption of ammonium chloride is also increasing, so China's exports to Vietnam still have a large volume.

(3) Large scale of oil products and related products

According to Chinese customs statistics, in 2022, the scale of oil additives exported from China to Vietnam exceeded 270000 tons, kerosene exceeded 240000 tons, diesel and catalytic diesel exceeded 200000 tons, alkylated oil exceeded 180000 tons, gasoline and ethanol gasoline exceeded 130000 tons, and marine fuel oil exceeded 80000 tons. The scale of China's exports of oil related products to Vietnam has exceeded 50000 tons, and the overall export scale is relatively large.

Currently, Vietnam only has two refineries, namely Rongju Refinery (with an annual processing capacity of 6.5 million tons/year) and Yishan Refinery (with an annual processing capacity of 7 million tons/year). The third refinery in Vietnam, Nanfang No.3 Refinery, is expected to be put into operation within the next three years, with an annual processing capacity of over 6.5 million tons/year. At that time, Vietnam's total refining capacity will exceed 20 million tons/year.

The main products of Vietnamese refineries currently include unleaded gasoline, heavy oil, diesel, fuel oil, liquefied gas, asphalt, polypropylene, polyester, benzene, and sulfur. They were first put into operation in 2008, and the local oil products in Vietnam mainly come from the processing and production of these two refineries. With the continuous growth of local consumption of refined oil, the supply gap for oil products is increasing, and the scale of imported refined oil and blending materials is also constantly increasing.

(4) Vietnam imports a large scale of plastic raw material particles from China

According to statistics, in 2022, Vietnam imported over 190000 tons of PVC from China, over 180000 tons of PTA, over 170000 tons of polyester staple fiber, over 130000 tons of polypropylene, and over 100000 tons of polyethylene. Moreover, there are various types of imported plastic particles and numerous products.

According to a survey by Ping Tou Ge, Southeast Asia is known as a processing factory for European manufacturing, with over 30% of plastic products imported from Southeast Asia, and most of the plastic products processed in Southeast Asia are exported to Europe. Vietnam is the largest manufacturing processing area in Southeast Asia. There are tens of thousands of plastic and rubber products processing factories in northern Northern Vietnam, including more than 3000 polypropylene processing enterprises and more than 1000 polyethylene processing enterprises.

However, there are fewer local plastic particle production enterprises in Vietnam, which cannot meet the local demand and are mainly supplemented through imports. The plastic particles imported locally in Vietnam are mainly supplemented by the Chinese market. It should be noted that in addition to the scale of direct export from China's coastal areas to Vietnam, there is also a part of Re-exportation from Hong Kong. It is preliminarily estimated that the scale of plastic particles exported from China to Vietnam exceeds 1 million tons annually, and this scale is still growing.

There is a large demand for chemicals and plastic products in Vietnam, and due to the small and scattered downstream enterprises in Vietnam, many demands cannot be concentrated and released, resulting in numerous supply barriers. It is recommended that powerful enterprises increase their investigation into the local area of Vietnam, especially small-scale consumer enterprises, in order to lock in the consumption expectations of the Vietnamese market for the Chinese chemical market.