Small, scattered, chaotic elbow calcium carbonate industry development

The China Inorganic Salt Industry Association recently convened a national calcium carbonate industry conference to focus on the mobilization and deployment of the “Twelfth Five-Year” industrial restructuring and curbing the overcapacity. In response to the problems of small scale, scattered distribution, backward production processes, and serious environmental pollution in the industry, the calcium carbonate industry in China has started a tough battle for industrial restructuring.

Status: Small and scattered pollution

Calcium carbonate is the largest amount of inorganic filler in the plastic, rubber, papermaking and other industries. Due to its high cost performance, large market sales, and low technical requirements, calcium carbonate production enterprises have emerged in recent years. According to the statistics of the China Inorganic Salt Industry Association, domestic calcium carbonate production capacity was 8.4 million tons in 2005, and by 2010 domestic calcium carbonate production capacity has grown to 18 million tons, with an average annual growth rate of 16.5%.

According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 800 calcium carbonate production enterprises in the country. In some calcium carbonate industry base counties, the phenomenon of many enterprises is more prominent. For example, there are more than 300 calcium carbonate production plants in Zhejiang Jiande, and there are carbonates in Lianjiang, Guangdong Province. There are more than 100 calcium plants and nearly 100 calcium carbonate manufacturing plants in Jingxing, Hebei.

At present, domestic calcium carbonate production plants are not only numerous but also small in scale. Professor Hu Qingfu, a technical consultant of the China Inorganic Salt Industry Association, told reporters that according to statistics of 119 calcium carbonate manufacturing companies that have been included in the statistics, there are only 5 enterprises with an annual output of more than 100,000 tons, accounting for 4.20% of the enterprises that have been counted; 50,000 to 100,000 tons of 16 companies, accounting for 13.45%; annual production of less than 15,000 tons of 67 companies, accounting for 56.30%. The number of companies included in the statistics is less than one-third of the total industry, and output accounts for 3/5 of the total output. It can be seen that enterprises that have not been included in the statistics are basically those whose annual production is less than 15,000 tons.

Calcium carbonate is an industry with a large amount of "three wastes" emissions. Due to the small scale of the company and the large number of production plants, the difficulty in the "three wastes" management of the industry has increased. The industry described calcium carbonate companies as "two dragons" companies, namely a "white dragon" and a "black dragon." The so-called "white dragon" refers to the calcium carbonate-containing tail gas discharged during the carbonization process and the lime kiln, and the white dust discharged from the packaging machine; and the exhaust gas of the drying system is mainly based on the dioxide* and cinder powder, because of The color is black, so it is called "Black Dragon".

When reporters visited the Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hebei, they noticed dust pollution problems in the calcium carbonate production plants. The white dust in the workshop was filled with plants and installations mostly shrouded in white mist. Many white calcium carbonate enterprises, black water everywhere, dust, dust drift with the wind, ash, slag everywhere, environmental pollution.

Source: Contradictions in Industrial Structure

Looking at the domestic calcium carbonate industry, the current outstanding problem is that there are many production plants and small installations. Compared with developed countries, the concentration of domestic calcium carbonate industry is very low, and the structural contradictions among enterprises are prominent. There are many problems with large number of companies, low average production capacity, and excessive pollution sources. At present, China's calcium carbonate production capacity and production rank among the top in the world, but the average size of enterprises is far lower than the level of developed countries in the world. Some enterprises that produce resource-based products are far away from the source of resources, and the production of bulk basic products and downstream post-processing products are decentralized, with large flow of goods, high logistics costs, and unreasonable use of resources. Therefore, in the optimization of resource allocation, market coordination, and scientific research and development control, they cannot adapt to international competition. The most obvious ones are redundant construction, overcapacity, severe shortage of operating rate, and decline in economic efficiency. Therefore, industrial restructuring is the top priority of the "12th Five-Year Plan" for the calcium carbonate industry.

The reason why calcium carbonate enterprises are small, scattered, and chaotic is more serious. First, calcium carbonate production, especially raw materials for light calcium carbonate (mainly limestone) are easy to obtain, and the production technology is not complicated, and the threshold for entry into the industry is low. Second, the industry is mainly private enterprises. The property rights structure is decentralized and it is difficult to integrate mergers. The third is the influence of some local governments on GDP performance. In the past few years, it was some local governments that were blindly inviting investment to develop local economies. The calcium carbonate investment projects with low barriers to entry were all green lights regardless of size and technology. Some local governments have specifically targeted local limestone resources to attract projects. The excessively loose investment policy has led to the occurrence of calcium carbonate production plants in some places.

Experts in the industry believe that investment in calcium carbonate should be adjusted strictly and investment policies must be strict. The reporter learned that with the help of this year's National Development and Reform Commission to revise the "Guidance Catalogue for Industrial Structure Adjustment (2011 edition)", the China Inorganic Salt Industry Association cooperated with the National Development and Reform Commission and proposed several amendment opinions based on the current status of the calcium carbonate industry. For the first time in the “Catalogue”, an entry for calcium carbonate industry adjustment was added, which stipulates that in the future, the new ordinary calcium carbonate projects, regardless of their size, will be listed as restricted projects, and existing ordinary calcium carbonate production will be 20,000 tons/year or less. Enterprises and installations are listed as items that must be eliminated.

The Industrial Structure Adjustment Guidance Catalog is an important basis for the government to guide investment directions, manage investment projects, and formulate and implement various economic policies. It also provides specific measures for fiscal, taxation, finance, land, import and export, and other links. The restriction and elimination policies for calcium carbonate are included in this list, and it is expected that it will play an important role in the upcoming restructuring of the industry.

Measures: Total Control Merger Integration

Tao Lianyin, deputy secretary-general of the China Inorganic Salt Industry Association, pointed out that this year is the beginning of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, and the calcium carbonate industry should take industrial restructuring as the primary task during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period.

The first is to control the total amount. Due to the limited value of products, the international trade volume of calcium carbonate imports and exports is limited. The basic annual amount is only about 700,000 tons. China cannot develop calcium carbonate as a foreign exchange earning product. Overcapacity has already been placed in front of it, and total quantity must be controlled.

Second, it is necessary to optimize the corporate structure and improve the degree of industrial concentration by eliminating measures such as backwardness, mergers and reorganizations, and asset integration, and change the current status of many production plants and small-scale enterprises. In particular, cities and counties that have the title of “industrial base” must promote large-scale and intensive development and make the industry bigger and stronger. By 2015, a number of large-scale enterprise groups and industrial agglomerations with resource advantages and core competitiveness will be formed.

The third is to focus on the development of energy-saving and environmentally friendly heavy calcium carbonate.

Fourth, efforts should be made to refine products, especially nano-scale calcium carbonate and additives production units, to increase the production of plastic, rubber, paint, daily chemical and other different fields of application, different performance of special materials, improve Refinement, increase product added value, and promote the industry to high-end development.

The reporter was informed that under the promotion of a number of adjustment and governance policies promulgated by the central government and industry associations, some local governments have begun to strictly grasp the structural adjustment of the calcium carbonate industry.

Zhejiang Changshan County introduced the calcium carbonate industry access policy, setting access conditions for ordinary light calcium projects and heavy calcium projects with an annual output of less than 20,000 tons, eliminating stone coal lime kiln and ordinary clay kiln within a limited period, and comprehensively promoting energy conservation and environmental protection Lime shaft kiln and the introduction of foreign advanced shaft kiln. Limestone resources will be allocated to the principle of resource allocation for ore and plants, and limestone resource management will be strengthened. Strictly control project investment projects for newly-built traditional production processes, and prohibit the construction of new calcium carbonate production enterprises near national highways, highways, and planned railway lines, and near environmentally sensitive areas such as ecological protection zones, scenic tourist areas, residents, and villages.

The Jingxing County Government in Hebei focuses on three links: First, taking the form of equity participation, holding, mergers and custody; encouraging calcium carbonate companies to reorganize themselves and develop large enterprise groups; and second, vigorously promote the drying and carbonization of existing enterprises. Mechanical shaft kiln and other technical transformation; Third, strict new project management. After merger and reorganization, the number of calcium carbonate enterprises in the county has been reduced from 122 last year to 62.

The Zhejiang Jiande City Government has recently stipulated that all production and storage facilities for calcium carbonate within the visible range of highways and scenic spots and in residents’ centralized areas shall be dismantled and all lime kiln kilns shall be eliminated; kiln exhaust gas must be installed and removed. * Dedusting facilities, exhaust gas standards to achieve emissions; ash process must use sealed tank equipment, ash, drying, packaging process must install dust removal device; heavy calcium enterprise mills must install dust removal equipment, enterprises with ore cleaning process, waste water The standards must be controlled and standard discharge outlets must be constructed. Dust removal devices must be installed at all dust outlets of light calcium production enterprises. Exhaust gas and waste water must also meet the discharge standards.

It is expected that the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” will have a big improvement in the issue of small-scale, scattered, and chaotic production of calcium carbonate under the concerted control of all parties.