Zhao Yongjie

China Information Center of Daily Chemical Industry, Chin

overview

In 2016, the total output of soaps and synthetic detergents from domestic enterprises above the scale was more than 13.9 million t, where the output of synthetic detergents was 12.991 million t, with a year-on-year increase of 2.74% compared to that in 2015, which was 12.646 t; the output of soaps was nearly 950,000 t, with a year-on-year increase of 5.55% compared to that in 2015, which was 900,000 t. The rapid increase in oil prices provided favorable conditions for the profit of soap products. The year-on-year increase in the soap products was higher than that during the “12th Five-year Plan”period, which was annually 2.5%～3.0%.

Among synthetic detergents, the output of laundry powder was 4.463 million t, with a year-on-year increase of 0.34% compared to that in 2015, which was 4.448 million t.The output of liquid detergents was 8.529 million t, with a year-on-year increase of 4.04% compared to that in 2015,which was 8.198 million t.

In 2016, the net import volume of synthetic detergents was -1.139 million t, and the apparent consumption of synthetic detergents was 11.853 million t, with a yearon-year increase of 2.05% compared to that in 2015,which was 11.614 million t. Manufactured inventory was converted to actual inventory of about 350,000 t, and converted to actual market consumption of 11.5 million t.The consumption of detergents per capita was 8.37 kg/year,and the actual consumption standard of detergents in China was 23 g/day/person. However, there was significant regional differences in the consumption of the detergent industry in China. The consumption, per capita,in Eastern China and Southern China was more than 3 times higher than that in the central and western regions.Based on incomplete statistics, the annual consumption of detergents, per capita, in Eastern China and Southern China was up to 14.5 kg/year, while the consumption, per capita, in Western China was less than 4.0 kg/year.

With respect to economic indicators, in 2016, the main operating income from manufacturing of soaps and synthetic detergents was 183.249 billion yuan, with a yearon-year increase of 6.33% compared to that in 2015; the main business cost was 139.607 billion yuan, with a yearon-year increase of 9.93% compared to that in 2015; the total profit was 11.52 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of -13.46%. Net accounts receivable was 15.851 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 14.25%;the manufactured inventory was 4.627 billion yuan,with a year-on-year increase of -8.29%. The debt of the industry in 2016 was 58.566 billion yuan, with a year-onyear increase of 12.04%; the total loss of loss-generating enterprises was 307 million yuan, with a year-on-year decrease of 30.11% compared to that in 2015.

Production and market

Output

In 2016, the total output of synthetic detergents, in all the provinces and cities throughout the country, was 12.991 million t, with a year-on-year decrease of 2.74%compared to that in 2015, which was 12.646 million t.Based on the ranking of output provinces and cities, the top five was Guangdong, Sichuan, Henan, Shandong and Anhui,with the output of 4.806 million t, 1.3188 million t, 1.171 million t, 929,100 t and 913,200 t respectively, with a yearon-year increase of 0.79%, -12.86%, 18.55%, 31.07% and 2.39% respectively compared to that in 2015, which was 4.769 million t, 1.514 million t, 987,500 t, 708,800 t and 794,200 t respectively. The output proportion of synthetic detergents in the top five provinces and cities was 37.00%,10.15%, 9.01%, 7.15% and 6.26% respectively, with the total proportion of nearly 70%, where the output proportion of Guangdong - the largest output province of synthetic detergents in China - was more than 1/3 (Figure 1).

Figure 1. the output proportion of synthetic detergents in the top five provinces in china

The monthly output data of synthetic detergents in China in 2016 was shown in Table 1, where the singlemonth output was more than 1 million t. Based on the monthly output data trend analysis, output in the last month of each quarter was high. The output in August and October through December showed a negative increase on a year-on-year basis, while the output in other months showed year-on-year increase to contribute to the total increase in the output of synthetic detergents in the current year. In November 2016, the output of synthetic detergents was decreased by 4.92% on a year-on-year basis, while the output in March and May was increased by double digits on a year-on-year basis. In addition, in all months of 2016, the accumulative output of synthetic detergents showed a year-on-year increase.

Product structure

In 2016, the total output of domestic synthetic detergents was 12.9914 million t, where output of laundry powder was 4.463 million t, accounting for 34.35%; output of liquid detergents was 8.529 million t, accounting for 65.65%.

In 2016, most of the laundry powder was ordinary laundry powder, and the output of concentrated laundry powder accounted for 3% only. Based on the statistics of enzymatic laundry powder and phosphate-free laundry powder, the output of enzymatic laundry powder in the main production enterprises in 2016 was more than 83%,and the output of phosphate-free laundry powder was 85%. The concentration of laundry powder industries was high. In 2016, the total output of laundry powder in the top 10 enterprises was 2.968 million t, accounting for 66.5%; in 2016, there were 15 enterprises with the annual laundry powder output of more than 50,000 t, including NICE Group, Guangzhou Liby, P&G (China), Unilever(China), Nafine Chemical Industry Group, Guangzhou Lonkey and Shandong Libo Daily Chemical Co. Ltd.

Regionally, the top five provinces and cities in the ranking of laundry powder output were Guangdong,Sichuan, Anhui, Shandong and Henan, with the output of 1.119 million t, 870,200 t, 453,200 t, 407,400 t and 399,600 t respectively, accounting for 25.07%, 19.50%,10.15%, 9.13% and 8.95% respectively, with the total output accounting for 72.80% in the top five provinces and cities.

Table 1. The monthly output data of synthetic detergent , 2015～2016

Table 2. The monthly output data of synthetic laundry powder , 2015～2016

Table 3. The monthly output data of liquid detergent , 2015～2016

Table 2 shows the monthly output data of domestic synthetic laundry powder in 2016. In 2015, large output was observed in September through December; in 2016, large output was observed in the last four months of the current year, where the output in January,February, April and August through October showed negative increase on a year-on-year basis, where the output in January and September showed significantly negative increase. Affected by the increased inventory at the end of the year, the output in December 2016 was increased by 9.93% on a year-on-year basis.

In 2016, there were more than 10 kinds of domestic liquid detergents including laundry detergent, tableware detergent, softeners, shower gels, shampoos and liquid soaps, dominated by laundry detergent and tableware detergent. Based on incomplete statistics, in 2016, the output proportion of laundry detergents, tableware detergents and softeners among the domestic liquid detergents was 43.20%, 40.61% and 4.17% respectively,while the output proportion of other liquid products was 12.02%.

The top five provinces and cities in the output of liquid detergents were Guangdong, Henan, Shangdong, Tianjin and Sichuan. with the output of 3,687,300 t, 771,100 t,521,700 t, 485,400 t and 448,600 t respectively, accounting for 43.23%, 9.04%, 6.12%, 5.69% and 5.26% of the output of liquid detergents in 2016 respectively. The total output proportion of liquid detergents in the top five provinces and cities was 69.34%, more than two thirds, where the output proportion of liquid detergents in Guangdong was more than one third (as shown in Figures 7 and 8).

Table 3 shows the monthly output of domestic liquid detergents in 2016. Compared to synthetic laundry powder, output of liquid detergents at the end of 2016 showed negative increase on a year-on-year basis, where output in November and December was increased by-8.53% and -5.61%on a year-on-year basis respectively,and output of liquid detergents in January through March and in May through June at the beginning of the year showed significant year-on-year increase by double digits or above.

In 2016, the enterprises above the scale of liquid detergents with annual laundry detergent output of 20,000 t included Guangzhou Liby, NICE Group,Guangzhou Blue Moon, Walch (Guangzhou), Unilever(China) and P&G (China).

Economic indicators

Based on statistical data of the National Bureau of statistics, in 2016, the daily chemical manufacturing industry was growing steadily but slowly. Among the 1,470 enterprises above the scale, main operating income was 496.066 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 6.64%, and the total profit was 46.166 billion yuan, with a year-on-year decrease of 7.56%.

The soap and synthetic detergent manufacturing industry is the largest branch of the daily chemical industry,the main operating income of which in 2016 was 183.249 billion yuan, accounting for 43%, but the profit rate was the lowest in the four industries; the main business profit rate in 2016 was 6.29% only, and total profit was 28% of the total profit of daily chemical industry.

Based on the data of National Bureau of Statistics on the 380 domestic enterprises above the scale, in 2016,total assets of the industry was 113.661 billion yuan,with a year-on-year increase of 12.64%; total liabilities was 58.566 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 12.04%; where the asset-liability ratio was 51.53%; net current assets was 72.396 billion yuan, with a year-onyear increase of 12.06%, accounting for 63.69% of the total assets.

Based on overall statistical analysis of the main economic indicators of soaps and synthetic detergents in the past five years, as a large detergent production and consumption country, the main operating income of the Chinese industry was increasing steadily every year, with the total increase of 18.56% in the past five years. However, based on the profit of the industry,in 2013～2016, there was negative increase trend continuously; particularly in 2014 and 2016, profit was decreased by more than double digits on a year-onyear basis. In 2012～2016, the profit of the industry was decreased by 30.55% cumulatively, and the total liabilities of the industry was also increasing continuously by more than double digits, 44.90% cumulatively in the past five years (Table 4 ～ Table 7).

Table 4. The main economic indicators of soaps and synthetic detergents, 2011～2016

Table 5. Statistics data on import and export of soap,2012～2016

Table 6. Statistics data on import and export of laundry power, 2012～2016

Table 7. Statistics data on import and export of liquid detergent, 2012～2016

Customs data

Based on the statistics of customs data of the detergent industry in 2016, the total import volume of soap products(34011100) was 91,000 t, with a year-on-year decrease of 1.94%; the total export volume of related products was 219,600 t, with a year-on-year increase of 2.81% (Table 5).

In 2016, the total import volume of laundry powder products was 8,600 t, with a year-on-year increase of 62.26%; the total export volume was 534,100 t, with a year-on-year increase of 16.82% compared to that in 2015, which was 457,200 t (Table 6).

The total import volume of liquid detergents was 249,300 t, with a year-on-year increase of 25.28%compared to that in 2015, which was 199,000 t; the total export volume was 756,000 t, with a year-on-year increase of 15.12% compared to that in 2015, which was 656,700 t (Table 7).

Problems

In 2016, detergents in China continued to keep the growth trend, but there are some problems with industry development represented by industry profit rate and debt; particularly, product structure should be adjusted and upgraded, and it was urgent to solve the irrational competition of the industry caused by product homogeneity and over-capacity. The second problem of concern is that at present, the concentration of domestic product structure and regional consumption characteristics was prominent. For example, the product consumption structure is diversified in Eastern China,Southern China and other developed areas, where the consumption per capita is higher than throughout the country; product consumption in central and western regions is dominated by low-end products, and consumption of high-end products in some metropolises.Such prominent regional consumption characteristics and regional product structure concentration became important factors to restrict sustainable development of the detergent industry in China. Improving product quality and added value, developing sustainable clean production and consumption and guaranteeing consumers' consumption quality and demand would be the primary development direction of the detergent industry in China in the future.