Environmental pressure promotes structural optimization of the dyestuff industry

At present, the number of companies in the entire dye industry is decreasing, and increasingly stringent environmental protection policies are an important reason. This is the impression the reporter got in an interview recently. According to Tian Liming, secretary general of the China Dyestuff Industry Association, there are currently more than 500 companies in the dyestuffs industry in the country, and 30-40 companies were closed down last year. The situation in the industry is not optimistic. The reason is that in addition to increasing market competition pressure, the increasing environmental pressure at home and abroad has become a problem that cannot be ignored.
It is understood that the waste water in the dye industry is relatively large and difficult to handle. It is an industry with a high degree of concern from the national environmental protection department. At the same time, the dyestuff industry belongs to the fine chemical industry, with many varieties and small output. Therefore, the scale of the enterprises in the industry is generally small. Currently, the companies with annual production of 10,000 tons or less in the industry account for the majority. The annual output is only 150,000 tons and the annual output is 10,000 tons. There are less than 20 of the above countries.
“It can be said that the environmental protection pressure is higher than ever before, and the cost of pollution control is continuously increasing. Therefore, if the company does not scale, it is likely to face losses,” Tian Liming said. Last year, quite a few companies in the domestic dyeing industry were shut down because of environmental protection. For example, among the many polluting enterprises that were shut down due to the cyanobacterial event in Taihu Lake last year, dye enterprises accounted for a considerable part, and Taihu Lake is a dye production enterprise. Area. In addition, the national energy-saving emission reduction policy has gradually refined the indicators, each chemical park has a hard task of energy-saving emission reduction, which allows dye enterprises to control the output in order to achieve compliance, while causing a decline in efficiency.
"But it should be noted that on the other hand, the concentration of large companies is increasing and profits have increased over the previous year," Tian Liming said. China is the world's largest dye-producing country and exporter. Last year, the annual output was estimated at over 700,000 tons, and exports were about 270,000 tons. In general, the domestic market is in excess of supply, resulting in fierce market competition and low profitability in the industry. However, last year, the profits of the dye industry increased, especially for some enterprises with a certain scale, and profits have shown a good growth. This is inconsistent with the fact that some small and medium-sized enterprises are forced to shut down due to environmental pressures and turn to the market.
With the growth of profits, the environmental protection technology of the dye industry has also made great progress compared with the past. For example, the largest amount of disperse dyes in dyestuffs, more than half of the production has used water jacket technology since last year. This technology has improved the water utilization rate through recycling and reuse, thus reducing the amount of waste water discharged; reactive dyes for dyeing cotton, the current industry 80% of the production uses membrane filtration technology, which can significantly improve product quality, and the technology uses direct spray drying technology, eliminating the need for water washing (95% of the sewage is generated at this stage), which can significantly reduce the amount of sewage; vulcanization Among the dyes, 90% of the production uses sulphur recovery technology, which can produce economic benefits. The application of these new technologies has greatly improved the environmental pollution of the dye industry.
It is worth noting that companies that are too small are often unable to apply new environmental protection technologies and cannot afford pollution control costs. However, due to the characteristics of the dyestuff industry with a large number of product varieties and a small amount of some varieties, some small varieties are still made by small businesses. To this end, Tian Liming suggested that dye enterprises must enter the chemical industry park. First, the “three wastes” can be treated centrally, which can greatly reduce the cost of pollution control, and can achieve wastewater treatment at the two levels (double treatment of the industrial park). The pollution is reduced to the lowest level; the second is that there are many types of raw materials for dyes, and there are many supporting projects in the chemical industry park, and the supply of raw materials is concentrated, which can reduce costs on a large scale. In addition, Tian Liming also suggested that dyestuff enterprises should expand the output of a single variety, achieve economies of scale in a certain variety, and thus increase the efficiency of enterprises.
In addition to the actual environmental pollution pressure, the dye industry also faces the environmental pressure of product trade. As the world's largest exporter of dyes, China is facing increasingly high green barriers in various countries. Products are not only harmless to the human body, but also must have the least environmental pollution. At present, the output of foreign dyes is declining, but the output value has been rising. Domestic dyes have always been a weakness in high-grade environmental protection raw materials. Therefore, increasing the technological added value of products is a pressing matter for the dye industry in China.
Tian Liming said that in recent years, the European and American markets have been raising barriers to entry, and green barriers have made textiles more and more demanding on the environmental performance of dyes, and some products have been discontinued. Domestic enterprises should step up research on the development of alternative products that comply with various environmental protection laws and regulations in Europe and the United States, and they should not give up the market. Now that the EU is pre-registering chemicals for REACH, it will have a greater impact on the dye industry that has a large number of varieties. Tian Liming urged enterprises to pay attention to pre-registration so as not to lose the EU market.

Posted on