The Present and Future of the Plastic Processing Industry: Seeking Breakthroughs Amid Challenges
From its difficult start to now occupying an important position in the global plastic field, China's plastic processing industry has gone through a long development process. Today, China has become a major plastic country with the world's largest output, consumption and exports. However, the path forward for the industry is not smooth, as it is currently facing many tough problems that urgently require transformation and breakthroughs.
1. Demand and Competition
Rizhao Wanjia International SCM Co., Ltd, which has advanced production equipment, standardized production process, and normalized production environment, is a fraternal company of Juxian Zhonglian Plastic Co., Ltd. We are an independent foreign trade enterprise specializing in the import and export of environmentally friendly plastic products. Our company is located in Ju County, Shandong Province, which is adjacent to the port, known as the hometown of plastics in China with convenient transportation and beautiful environment.
According to the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, in 2024, the cumulative output of enterprises in China's plastic products industry reached 77.076 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 2.9%. In terms of exports, customs data shows that the total export value of plastic products that year was 106.09 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%; the total import value was 17.8 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 3.6%, with a trade surplus of 88.29 billion US dollars. The surplus continues to rise, accounting for 9% of the national commodity trade surplus. At present, China's plastic products exports are mainly concentrated in Asia, Europe and the United States, with ASEAN, the United States and the European Union being the top three export markets.
Despite the impressive achievements, the hidden worries behind the industry cannot be ignored. The China Plastics Processing Industry Association points out that at this stage, the effective market demand is insufficient, the demand structure is changing rapidly, and there is fierce competition within the industry, especially in the low-end product market, where disorderly competition is serious. At the same time, the complex and volatile international situation has significantly increased the difficulty and risks of exports.
2. Environmental protection and sustainable development
The pressure of environmental protection and the challenges of sustainable development are becoming increasingly prominent. Environmental protection policies at home and abroad continue to tighten, with more and more restrictions on Disposable Plastic products. Plastic recycling and reuse face multiple difficulties in technology, economy and society. The cost of recycling remains high, the recycling system is still imperfect, and there are many doubts about the reuse of qualified recycled materials. Although the industry has made some achievements in recycling and reuse, there is still a long way to go to build a sound circular economy system.
The "bottleneck" problem of core technologies and raw materials has seriously restricted industrial upgrading. After years of development, although the extrusion process technology in the plastic processing industry has made remarkable progress, there is still a large gap between some key core technologies and the international advanced level. Many small and medium-sized plastic processing enterprises have limited strength and cannot afford high R&D costs, leading to a bottleneck in investment in technological innovation, with high R&D difficulty and slow breakthroughs.
3. Opportunities in emerging markets
Facing numerous challenges and opportunities, for the upcoming "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the China Plastics Processing Industry Association has formulated four "orientations" for the industry's strategic direction: orienting towards the world's scientific and technological frontier to shape the industry with high-quality products; orienting towards the people's life and health to enhance well-being through science and technology; orienting towards major national needs to break through key technological bottlenecks; and orienting towards the main economic battlefield to promote resource integration and collaborative development.
The association predicts that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the plastic processing industry market will maintain a steady upward trend. It is expected that by 2030, the output and consumption of plastic products in China will grow steadily. Among them, technological innovation will become the core driving force. The application of high-performance engineering plastics in high-end fields such as electronics, medical care, and 6G communications will accelerate; the market scale of special materials such as nanocomposites and conductive plastics will continue to expand; intelligent manufacturing and digital technologies, such as AI full-process optimization and blockchain traceability, will be deeply integrated into the industry, significantly improving production efficiency. Emerging application markets will also see significant growth, such as solid-state battery films, sodium battery films, and hydrogen storage cylinders in the new energy and energy storage fields; flexible wearable devices and 3D printed organ models in the medical and health fields; and antibacterial, oxygen barrier, and sensor labels in the intelligent packaging field.
Green transformation has risen to a strategic height. The large-scale application of bio-based plastics, the commercial breakthrough of chemical recycling technology, the exploration of carbon tax pilots, and the establishment of low-carbon certification systems will promote a significant increase in the output and application of recycled plastics. The EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will also force export enterprises to accelerate low-carbon transformation, and competition around "technological standard leadership (such as carbon accounting methodologies)" will become more intense.
4. Conclusion
It is worth noting that due to homogeneous market competition, fluctuations in crude oil prices, trade barriers, and substitution by other materials, the industry's profit margins may continue to be compressed. The China Plastics Processing Industry Association calls on the industry to reach a consensus as soon as possible and unswervingly take the path of technological innovation and green transformation and development. Leading enterprises can improve their market share through vertical integration, while small and medium-sized enterprises should transform into segmented fields, thereby further optimizing the position of China's plastic processing industry in the global industrial pattern.