On August 12, Nantong Xingchen’s new-generation plant of 30,000 t/y polyphenylene ether was started to be up and running. So far, Bluestar has reached 50,000 tons/year in its production capacity of PPE resins, ranking No. 2 in the world. This has further consolidated its leading position in the PPE industry.

PPE, also known as PPO, one of the five major engineering plastics, is the lightest engineering plastic with excellent dimensional stability and natural halogen-free and flame-retardant characteristics. It has been extensively used in photovoltaic, automotive, electronics, home appliances, water treatment and other fields. Also, PPE features unique low dielectric constant, low dielectric loss and electrolyte resistance, representing an important material for national strategic emerging industries, such as 5G communications, new energy vehicles, integrated circuit chips and other industries.

PPE, one of the engineering plastics with the highest import dependence in China, is listed in the National Development and Reform Commission’s Industrial Policy Guidance Catalogue for preferential construction projects. Due to its long production process, complex technology, and high technical barriers, only a few enterprises across the world have mastered the industrial technology of producing 10,000-ton PPE. For a long time, the Chinese market has relied mainly on imports of PPE materials. In 2005, Bluestar built China’s first 10,000-ton PPE industrial production plant in Ruicheng County, Shanxi Province, which localized PPE materials and got rid of the long-term dependence on imported PPE. After years of exploration, practice and technological innovation, the PPE production capacity of Nantong Xingchen’s Ruicheng Branch expanded to 20,000 t/y in November 2017, initially meeting the fast-growing domestic market demand for PPE products.

On the basis of 20,000 t/y PPE production capacity in Ruicheng, Bluestar planned to map out a new-generation 30,000 t/y PPE project in Nantong, Jiangsu Province to further expand production capacity for the growing market demand. Construction of the project began in August 2018 with a total investment of 1 billion yuan.

Dr. Ni Huafang, CTO of Bluestar, said that the new-generation PPE project of Nantong Xingchen featuring advanced technology, better product quality, lower energy-material consumption, low impurity content, less gas emission, excellent product consistency and stability, controlled molecular weight design, uniform molecular weight distribution, and wider product coverage can meet the needs of different markets and customer groups for high-quality PPE materials.

Nantong Xingchen’s PPE project is one of the key construction ones listed in Bluestar’s 13th Five-Year Plan, which is a result of Nantong Xingchen following the philosophy of “science-driven development with a unity of purpose and action.” It is also the first project up and running at the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan, which is of great significance to Bluestar’s future development. After being put into production, it will further meet the demand of domestic and foreign markets and national strategic emerging industries for high-quality PPE materials, effectively alleviate the tight supply of PPE resins in the past few years, change the supply structure of PPE in domestic and Asia-Pacific markets, and provide domestic and foreign customers with PPE materials featuring better quality, more complete specifications, faster delivery and better cost performance. Nantong Xingchen will further broaden the application fields of PPE materials, sharpen the market competitiveness of Bluestar’s engineering plastics business, create more value for its customers and contribute to the development of national strategic emerging industries.