How will the 90 million-ton Ningbo petrochemical base influence the direction of China's chemical industry?

On August 22, 2025, CNOOC announced that its CNOOC Refining and Chemical Daxie Petrochemical Refining and Chemical Integration Project was a successful start-up in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. This event is not only a major milestone in China's petrochemical industry, but also marks a world-class super-large-scale petrochemical industry base officially built. For overseas chemical traders, producers and supply chain participants, it is important to understand the impact of this new landscape on the global market.

1. scale impact and capacity release: reshaping the new pattern of global competition

with the commissioning of the Daxie Petrochemical Project, Ningbo Petrochemical Base has redefined the petrochemical industry in China and the world in terms of scale. The total refining scale of Daxie Petrochemical Project is up 12 million tons/year at the same time, it can produce 1.2 million tons of polymerization grade ethylene and propylene, matching 1.2 million tons of polyolefin plant. The addition of the project has made the total refining capacity of Ningbo Petrochemical Base a breakthrough. 90 million tons/year this scale is composed of Zhenhai Refining and Chemical (40 million tons), Zhejiang Petrochemical (40 million tons) and the newly added Daxie Petrochemical.

The explosive growth of this scale has directly pushed the Ningbo base to the forefront of the global petrochemical industry, and brought about immediate capacity shocks and structural changes:

first of all, in terms of basic chemical raw materials, the aromatic production capacity of Ningbo base has occupied about the total production capacity of China. 40% in particular, PX production capacity is huge; ethylene production capacity accounts 25% and above. For overseas traders, this means that the Chinese market is in the field of aromatics and ethylene. Import dependence will drop significantly it will have a huge impact on the global price system and trade flow of related products. In particular, Ningbo is located in the central coastal area of East China, and its products radiate North China, Central China, South China and Southeast Asia, which will further intensify the competition in the regional market.

Secondly, at the technical level, the rise of Ningbo base is no longer a simple "quantity" pile, but the improvement of "quality. Daxie Petrochemical Adopts independent Research and Development of Heavy Oil Direct Cracking Technology for Chemical Production, realized localization rate of 100 per cent. This technology directly converts heavy oil into polymer-grade ethylene/propylene, breaking the foreign monopoly on heavy oil processing technology. In addition, the base's breakthrough in high-end products has accelerated import substitution: Zhejiang Petrochemical. Optical grade PMMA (180000 tons) breaks Asahi's monopoly; Zhenhai Refinery Electronic Grade Acetone products such as high-end polyethylene/polypropylene and battery-grade DMC have also replaced imports. Overseas producers must realize that China is accelerating its growth in high-end chemicals. self-sufficiency the window period for exports to China is narrowing.

2. Supply Chain Remodeling: Regional Synergy and Future Prospects in the Yangtze River Delta

the completion of Ningbo Petrochemical Base, for overseas supply chain practitioners, indicates the overall improvement of the stability, complexity and efficiency of the supply chain in East China.

The base brings together Wanhua Chemical (Ningbo), CICC Petrochemical, LG Yongxing, Sinopec Yinglex, Norion Chemical, Lian de Basser and many other large-scale enterprises, forming a complex industrial chain supporting relationship, and jointly building a trillion-level industrial chain cluster from **" Refining-Chemical-New Materials-Terminal Application "**. This not only provides key raw material guarantee for the automobile and household appliance industries in the Yangtze River Delta, but also for the textile industry in the coastal areas of East China (such as Zhejiang Petrochemical's 3 million-ton PTA and CICC's aromatics project).

More importantly, the Ningbo base and the surrounding core park formed a differentiated division of labor ningbo focuses on refining and chemical integration and high-end polyolefins, Shanghai Petrochemical Park focuses on ethylene derivatives and fine chemical industry, and Nanjing Jiangbei New Materials Science and Technology Park specializes in specialty chemicals. Together, the three have built a gradient industrial chain of "refining-chemical-new materials" in the Yangtze River Delta, improving the efficiency and resilience of the supply chain throughout the region. Overseas companies need to take into account this regional synergy when planning their Asian business and logistics strategies to optimize their investment and trade layout in China.