World’s First Successful Net-Based Rocket Recovery Marks a New Space-Grade Growth Opportunity for High-End Plastic Materials

On July 10, 2026, the Long March 10 B rocket successfully completed its launch and the recovery of a first-stage booster at sea from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site, setting a new record.The first domestic controlled recovery of a sub-stage of a launch vehicle and the world's first network recovery of a rocket.These two major records mark the official commercialization of China’s reusable rocket technology, effectively addressing the industry pain points of high launch costs and low launch frequency in commercial aerospace, and driving the aerospace industry toward scaled, routine, and low-cost development. The successful completion of this space mission was made possible by the critical support of domestically produced high-end plasticized new materials, and has also brought tangible structural development opportunities for the high-end and domestic substitution transformation of China’s plastics and chemical materials industry.

Photo: An offshore recovery platform successfully recovers the first stage of the Long March-10B carrier rocket using a net-based capture system (drone photo). Source: Xinhua News Agency.

1. Breakthroughs in space recovery technology open up long-term growth potential for new materials.

The first stage of a rocket accounts for 60%–70% of the total launch vehicle cost, making it the core component of space launch costs. The traditional expendable rocket model is not only costly but also severely constrains the industrialization of the commercial space sector. The successful net-based recovery and reuse of the first stage in this mission enables the core rocket body to be used repeatedly, directly reducing the cost of each launch and improving launch turnaround efficiency.

As reusable recovery technologies continue to mature, the frequency of domestic commercial space launches will steadily increase, and industrial application scenarios such as low-Earth-orbit satellite networking, commercial space experiments, and deep-space exploration will continue to materialize. Unlike ordinary civilian materials, rocket launches and offshore recovery scenarios impose stringent requirements on materials in terms of ablation resistance, high-temperature resistance, impact resistance, and high strength. As the aerospace industry shifts from experimental launches to large-scale commercialization, it will continue to drive rigid demand growth for specialty polymer materials, providing long-term and stable incremental support for the high-end plastics and chemical materials segment.

II. Domestically produced materials provide robust support, breaking the reliance on imported high-end aerospace materials.

The world’s first rocket net-recovery mission was successfully completed, with domestically developed new materials playing a key role in ensuring its success.Shengquan Group’s self-developed high-performance thermal protection productsSuccessfully equipped with the two core facilities of the rocket launch platform and the sea recovery platform, directly facing the harsh challenges of high temperatures from rocket exhaust, high-speed airflow impacts, and complex maritime conditions, ensuring the stable operation of the entire set of equipment throughout the process, thus safeguarding the successful completion of the mission.

As a national champion in the manufacturing of phenolic resin, Shengquan Group has long been dedicated to the high-end specialty resin sector, specifically addressing technical challenges such as high-temperature ablation, high-pressure impact, and extreme temperature variations in aerospace extreme scenarios. Its self-developed thermal protection materials possess excellent thermal insulation, flame retardancy, ablation resistance, and high strength, fully meeting the stringent requirements of aerospace conditions. This successful application in real scenarios effectively validates the aerospace-grade supporting capabilities of domestically produced high-end plastic materials, breaking the long-standing dependence on imports for high-end aerospace materials in China and providing a mature case for the domestic replacement of specialty new materials.

3. Significant Differentiation in the Industry Landscape Driving the Transformation and Upgrading of the Industry Toward the High End

This aerospace technological breakthrough has a clearly differentiated structural impact on the plastics industry and does not constitute a broad-based positive for the entire sector. For mainstream bulk commodity plastics such as PE, PP, and PVC, this aerospace event has no substantive impact. Their supply-demand dynamics and price trends will continue to be driven by international crude oil prices, inventory cycles, and traditional downstream demand from packaging, construction materials, and daily-use products, while the industry’s fundamentals remain stable.

In contrast to the high-end niche segments, special plastic products such as phenolic resins, high-end modified resins, ablation-resistant composite materials, and special sealing and thermal insulation materials are experiencing tangible and realizable industrial dividends. The R&D threshold for these materials is high, the production processes are complex, market homogenization is low, and the added value of these products is far greater than that of general-purpose plastics. With the acceleration of the commercialization and normalization of the commercial space industry, special orders for these materials will continue to be released. At the same time, the rigid demand from high-end aerospace scenarios will continuously push domestic plastic companies to move away from low-end price competition, increase investment in the R&D of special materials, fill the technological gaps in high-end materials, and promote the overall industry upgrade towards high-end, functional, and localized production.

4. Technological spillover empowers multiple tracks, and new materials become the core engine of industry growth.

Aerospace-grade specialty materials technologies have strong cross-sector reuse potential and can effectively expand the application boundaries of high-end plasticized materials. The large-scale commercialization of reusable rockets will not only directly drive steady growth in demand for aerospace thermal protection materials, but also simultaneously boost market demand for high-end products such as high-strength lightweight modified plastics, radiation-resistant polymer materials, and advanced cushioning composite materials.

More importantly, materials technologies validated under the extreme operating conditions of the aerospace sector can be rapidly applied to high-end civilian fields, in turn empowering high-growth sectors such as new energy storage, AI computing electronics, high-end equipment manufacturing, and precision industries. This enables advanced new materials, once confined to niche aerospace and defense applications, to gradually achieve large-scale civilian adoption, effectively expanding the market space and profit channels for domestic new materials enterprises.

Overall, the domestic plastic processing industry has long been characterized by overcapacity in low-end production, homogenization and intense competition, and thin profit margins. The extensive expansion model is no longer viable. The rapid rise of commercial aerospace provides a clear direction for industry transformation: relying on emerging high-end industries, breaking material barriers through technological innovation, and achieving breakthroughs through specialty products and import substitution. In the future, the core growth focus of the plastic processing industry will continue to shift towards high-tech, highly compatible specialty new materials. Companies with core R&D capabilities and experience in high-end scenario applications will continue to seize the dividends of niche markets, leading the industry from scale expansion to pragmatic development with high quality and high added value.