In the first half year, the carbon black enterprises constantly improved management level and operation efficiency, proactively prevented and solved various production and operation risks, actively sought for new economic growth point and breakthrough, paid attention to developing differentiated, high-performance and high-value-added products, constantly quickened the adjustment of product structure, paid more attention to energy conservation and environmental protection, gave full play to two markets and two resources at home and abroad and constantly enhanced competitive advantages, and the industry gradually walked to be stable and better. 

Output and sales realizes stable growth

According to the statistics of China Rubber Industry Association (hereinafter referred to as CRIA) Carbon Black Branch, in the first half year, the member enterprises completed the carbon black output of 2.13 million tons, with a year-on-year (same below) growth of 10.7%; and the sales of 2.315 million tons, with a growth of 7.8% to basically reach balance between production and marketing. After years of depression, the growth rate of carbon black output returned to be double-digit. In recent years, the growth of carbon black output is divided into two stages, the first stage is the growth of carbon black output was basically double-digit before 2010; and the second stage is affected by the financial crisis, the growth rate of the output constantly declined after 2010 and bottomed in 2015, which showed a negative growth, and gradually became stable and better after 2015 and realized a double-digit growth in the first half year of 2017, see Fig. 1. 

Fig. 1 Schematic Diagram of Growth Rate of Carbon Black Output from 2010 to January to June of 2017 

In recent years, the carbon black enterprises have paid more attention to brand construction and energy conservation and environmental protection to build a green and beautiful factory environment and realize the development mode of modern company. Especially, the leading enterprises and listed companies of the industry, such as Jiangxi BLACKCAT Carbon Black Inc., Ltd., Suzhou Baohua Carbon Black Co. Ltd., Longxing Chemical Stock Co, Ltd. and Shanxi Yongdong Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. have possessed strong development momentum to drive the development of the whole industry. In the first half year, the carbon black output of top ten enterprises reached 1.48 million tons in total, accounting for 70% of the statistic total output of CRIA, and the industrial concentration was relatively high. 

Table 1: Carbon Black Output of Key Enterprises from January to June of 2017 

Note: The date is the statistics data of CRIA Carbon Black Branch.

The price of the raw oil fluctuates to squeeze the profit space of carbon black

Since 2017, the domestic high-temperature coke-oven coal tar market constantly goes up, the overall growth in the first quarter was about 30.46%, the price temporarily fell after rise and continued the trend of crazy rise in the second quarter, and recently, the market price rises violently, the price almost rises upon competitive bidding, and there is a trend of going up to be 3,000 Yuan/ton. Meanwhile, the output of coal tar is not optimistic and the source of goods is still in a tense situation. Such situation results in sharp increase of carbon black production cost pressure. To reduce the loss and ensure the humble profit space of the carbon black enterprise, the price of carbon black is also adjusted. In addition, affected by the national environmental protection policy, the enterprise operating rate of large carbon black production provinces such as Hebei, Shandong and Shanxi is affected with various degrees, some carbon black varieties have shortage and tight supply also promotes rise in carbon black price.

Enlarged investment in environmental protection increases the production cost of carbon black

Recently, Central Environmental Protection Inspection Group carries out environmental protection inspection for different provinces and cities in the country, carbon black enterprises face huge pressure and many enterprises begin a new round of desulfurization and denitrification environmental protection investment projects on the premise of treating dust and sewage. Especially in this winter, due to blocked air circulation and frequent occurrence of haze, the carbon black enterprises in some key haze areas implement many measures such as limited production, which are under networked online monitoring, most of the enterprises are under direct networked online monitoring of provincial environmental protection department and some are under networked online monitoring of the national Ministry of Environmental Protection. Some local governments successively publish restrictions on environmental protection indexes which are stricter than the national environmental protection standard, for example, Shandong, Hangzhou, etc. require that sulfur dioxide shall be ≤50mg/m3 and nitric oxide shall be ≤100mg/m3, both of which are higher than the requirement that sulfur dioxide shall be ≤400mg/m3 and nitric oxide shall be ≤400mg/m3 in the standard of Emission of Air Pollutants for Boilers. The enterprises successively invest to carry out desulfurization and denitrification projects within a short time. According to estimation, the investment of the enterprise in one set of desulfurization and denitrification equipment is about 24 Million Yuan, and the equipment has high operation expenses and short life, thus bringing about a considerably large cost expenditure to the enterprises.

Promote supply-side reform to realize transformation and upgrading

At present, Chinese carbon black industry still has certain gap with developed countries in technical innovation ability, industrial structure optimization and brand construction. As the constraint of the resource environment on carbon black industry becomes increasingly strengthened, the industrial development faces more challenges, and promoting structural reform of supply side deeply is the only way of the industry to solve existing contradictions, break through development bottlenecks and realize transformation and upgrading.

Firstly, pay attention to brand construction and change of the demand of the consumer behaviors, improve the market reputation and customer recognition of the products, change the low competitive mode of priceoff promotion at every turn, and improve the reputation of the products through brand construction and high-quality service. Secondly, regulate the market competition order, rationally and reasonably control the output growth speed to make the supply and demand keep relatively stable and avoid affecting market mood and damage the market confidence due to fluctuated imbalance of supply-demand relationship. Thirdly, enhance new product R&D and technical progress, with the market demand oriented, pay attention to the demand of green tires for carbon black quality as well as the application of carbon black in nontire rubber products field, constantly improve the core technology and seek for developing special products to increase the economic benefits.