Plastics Market Boom Arrives: Can Anti-Internal Competition Usher in a Second Wave of Opportunity

With the arrival of the traditional peak season for the plastics market, the industry’s efforts to combat excessive competition have reached a critical juncture. Recently, a series of policy signals and industry developments indicate that the plastics market’s anti-involution movement is likely to usher in a second wave of opportunities, injecting new momentum into the industry’s development.

From a policy perspective, China is undertaking major reforms in the petrochemical and refining industries. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, along with four other ministries, has issued a notice to carry out a comprehensive assessment of outdated equipment in the petrochemical and chemical sectors, providing data support for subsequent renovation and upgrade action plans. According to Bloomberg, China plans to phase out small-scale and obsolete facilities, shifting investment toward advanced materials. Small refineries with an annual capacity of less than 2 million tons may be shut down. These measures aim to optimize the industry structure, promote the orderly exit of outdated capacity, and fundamentally address issues such as overcapacity and disorderly low-price competition in the plastics industry.

In addition, the important article "Deepening the Construction of a National Unified Market" by General Secretary Xi Jinping, published in the September 16 issue of Qiushi Magazine, clearly pointed out the need to focus on rectifying the chaos of enterprises engaging in low-price and disorderly competition. This provides important policy guidance for reducing internal competition in the plastics industry. During the peak season of the plastics market, when demand increases, strengthening policy guidance and supervision is conducive to regulating market order and preventing enterprises from falling into vicious competition in the race to seize market share.

From the perspective of the industry's own development, segmented fields such as the plastic pipe industry have already begun to take proactive measures to break away from "involution." The China Plastics Processing Industry Association's Plastic Pipe Committee held its annual meeting and industry exchange conference, calling on the industry to abandon "involution-style" competition. This indicates that companies within the industry have recognized the harms of involution and are actively seeking transformation and upgrading, laying the foundation for the arrival of the second wave of anti-involution opportunities.

Reflecting on the anti-competition journey of the photovoltaic (PV) industry, its experiences are worth emulating by the plastics industry. Since the beginning of this year, under the dual influence of policies and market mechanisms, the PV industry has seen initial success in its "anti-competition" efforts, with product prices rising across several segments of the supply chain. As the peak season for the plastics market approaches, the plastics industry could achieve significant breakthroughs in anti-competition by learning from the PV industry’s experiences and enhancing the synergy between policy and market forces.

The arrival of the peak season in the plastics market has created a favorable market environment for anti-involution efforts, while policy support and proactive actions within the industry have made a second wave of opportunities for anti-involution possible.

Author: Zhou Yongle, Senior Market Analysis Expert