[Industry Focus]：Domestic EVA profits shrink sharply in 2024, with profits falling to five-year low

on December 2, Lianyungang's high-end EVA new material pilot project ushered in a key milestone-the cable tray was fully completed, marking the official start of the 52000-meter cable laying work. The substation and outer pipe gallery bridge of the project are located in the production area. In order to ensure the construction safety and quality, the owner's control measures are comprehensively upgraded. Construction personnel entering the operation area need to be confirmed by strict face recognition, and special operation personnel carry out qualification inspection every day to ensure the professionalism and safety of the construction team. However, due to the short absolute construction time, the construction efficiency is affected to some extent.

Faced with many construction challenges, such as the on-site temperature is close to zero, the installation height of the cable bridge on the outer pipe gallery is more than 20 meters, and the complicated direction of the process pipelines on the outer pipe gallery leads to many bends for bridge fabrication and installation, all the members of Lianyungang Electromechanical Team went up against the difficulties. After 15 days of intensive work, the whole line of the electrical cable bridge was finally completed. This achievement not only laid a solid foundation for the follow-up cable laying work, but also fired the first shot for the rapid advancement of the entire project.

on July 26, 2024, the 800-ton/year high-end EVA new material pilot project of Jiangsu Sirbang Petrochemical Co., Ltd. was officially filed. The code of the project is 2407-320720-04-05-219213, and the site is located east of Gangqian 4th Road and north of Bishan 2nd Road, Xuwei New District, Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province. The project will build a 800-ton/year high-end EVA new material pilot plant and related public auxiliary, environmental protection projects. Prior to this, on May 17, the project had carried out the first public participation information publicity of environmental impact assessment, which showed that the company attached great importance to environmental protection and social responsibility.

sheng Hong Group, as a leader in the industry, has actively laid out a number of EVA devices. Among them, Jiangsu Hongjing 200000 tons/year photovoltaic grade ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer project is an important part of Shenghong Group's EVA industrial layout. The project successfully opened up the whole process and produced qualified products on October 26, marking a successful start-up of the project. In addition, Shenghong Group has also planned other EVA devices, with a cumulative production capacity of 1.05 million tons, which will make Shenghong a world-class EVA production base and further enhance its competitiveness in the global market.

in 2024, the domestic EVA market capacity continues to expand, Ningxia Baofeng Energy annual output of 250000 tons of EVA project and Jiangsu Hongjing 200000 tons/year photovoltaic grade EVA project successfully put into operation, making the domestic EVA effective capacity is expected to reach 2.9 million tons. However, in terms of demand, although the photovoltaic industry is an important application area of EVA, due to a variety of factors, the growth rate of new photovoltaic installations slowed down significantly in 2024, and domestic demand showed a steady growth trend. Data show that the demand for photovoltaic grade EVA in 2024 is expected to be around 177-1.8 million tons, with a year-on-year growth rate of 6%.

in terms of imports and exports, domestic EVA net imports fell sharply in the first three quarters of 2024, mainly due to domestic EVA capacity expansion and increased production. At the same time, due to domestic demand is less than expected, supply and demand mismatch led to EVA price low volatility, import arbitrage window phase tightening, import volume fell sharply. Exports, on the other hand, have grown steadily, and the pace of substitution of domestic EVA for imported materials has accelerated significantly. In terms of profits, the domestic EVA industry's profits have also shrunk sharply in 2024 due to falling prices, with industry profits falling to their lowest level in five years.

looking forward to the next five years, the domestic EVA industry is about to enter a new round of concentrated expansion cycle. However, there is no significant improvement in the demand side, so the industry will gradually shift from a phased, structural surplus to a comprehensive surplus. In this context, the industry will enter a stage of self-adjustment, and production capacity will further increase, but capacity utilization is expected to slow down. At the same time, industry concentration will further increase, and the proportion of CR5 companies (I. e., the top five companies in the industry) will further increase. However, due to the imbalance between supply and demand and the impact of falling prices, industry profits are expected to return to the cost line, and companies will face more severe market competition and profitability challenges.