Hunan Petrochemical 1 million tons of continuous reorganization put into production! SLCR autonomous technology a successful drive

1. raw materials pattern: LPG establishes "chemical core" status, infrastructure to ensure supply resilience.

In 2025, China's liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) market officially bid farewell to the era of civilian fuel dominance. For global traders, China is no longer just an energy buyer, but the world's largest propane/butane feedstock processing center.

1. Restructuring of consumption structure and high dependence on imports by the end of 2025, China's total LPG consumption exceeded 60 million tons. among them, the proportion of chemical utilization has jumped to more than 70% however, traditional civilian fuels have been reduced to less than 30%.

• Trade opportunities: propane imports exceeded 28 million tons and liquefied butane imports exceeded 7.3 million tons. The huge import gap means that China's bargaining power and arbitrage demand for North American and Middle Eastern sources will remain high.

2. Infrastructure "billion-level" expansion to reduce logistics friction in 2025, a number of world-class storage facilities will be built in the coastal core petrochemical area, significantly improving the turnover capacity of import sources:

• yancheng oil level freezer: annual turnover of 1.5 million tons, to fill the energy gap in northern Jiangsu.

• Dongying Port and Jieyang Wharf: the commissioning of the million-ton reservoir area and 50000-ton berths indicates that the raw material loading and unloading efficiency of petrochemical clusters in northern and southern China has reached the international leading level.

2. Derivative Technology Transition: Global Competitiveness of Bio-based C4 and High Purity Isobutene

in the field of C4 deep processing, Chinese enterprises are shifting from "cheap volume" to "high purity and green" premium route through technology iteration.

1. Bio-based butane: a new track under the green barrier2025 will become the first year of bio-based C4 ". Guangxi put into production the first domestic 100000 tons/year biological butane plant(Bagasse fermentation route). For overseas downstream buyers who focus on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) (such as high-performance tires and bioplastics), the bio-based C4 supplied by China will become a new weapon to break through the "carbon tariff" in Europe and the United States.

2. High purity isobutylene: "domestic substitution" and output of special materials with the commissioning of high purity (99.99%) projects such as Jinling Huntsman and Yulong Petrochemical, China's isobutylene purification technology has overcome core barriers such as molecular sieve adsorption and catalytic distillation.

• Market Value: these high-purity products are directly benchmarked against the global pharmaceutical intermediates, semiconductor chemicals and specialty rubber markets, and overseas traders can focus on their export potential in electronic-grade applications.

3. stock game: the "danger" and "machine" of MTBE"

as a traditional oil feedstock, MTBE is facing the dual pressure of upgrading global fuel standards (expected by China 7) and replacing ethanol gasoline.

• Capacity peaking: the total production capacity exceeds 31 million tons, and the industry's operating rate is facing challenges.

• Transition path:"MTBE cracking to produce high purity isobutylene" has become the mainstream self-rescue path. In addition, the growing demand for electronic and pharmaceutical-grade MTBE is becoming a "safe haven" for high profits ". Traders should pay attention to how pallets originally used for oil blending are converted into high value-added fine chemical products through refining processes.

4. Trader Strategy: Grasp the window period for the implementation of the new standard in 2026.

The new national standard of **GB 11174-2025" LPG "* * issued in November 2025 will be implemented from November 2026.

• Compliance Threshold: strict sulfur content and VOCs limits will eliminate a large number of low-end mixed C4 suppliers.

• Market Integration: traders should give priority to targeting large petrochemical bases with high-standard testing capabilities, and pay attention to the price arbitrage space brought about by the refinement of classification (industrial vs civilian).

Summary: the qualitative change in 2025 indicates that China's C4 industry chain has completed the transformation from "quantity" to "quality. For overseas practitioners, this means that a more large-scale advantage, greener and more professional supply source of high-end chemicals is rising.