With the progress of technology and the development of human civilization, plastic products have penetrated into every aspect of our lives, from daily necessities to high-tech products, plastic products are everywhere. However, with the widespread application of plastic products, the environmental problems they bring have gradually become prominent, attracting global attention.

1、 Overview of the Plastic Products Industry

Plastic products, as a general term for various daily and industrial products made from plastic as the core raw material, cover products made by various processes such as injection molding and vacuum molding. Compared to other materials, plastic has unique characteristics: its lightweight design reduces material consumption, excellent chemical stability ensures its effectiveness in various environments, excellent electrical insulation performance makes it an ideal choice for the electrical industry, and the low thermal conductivity of plastic provides good insulation and noise reduction effects. In addition, the mechanical strength of plastics can be adjusted as needed, with higher specific strength.

With the increasing awareness of environmental protection and the implementation of a series of plastic restriction and ban policies, traditional disposable plastic products are gradually being replaced by degradable plastics. This transformation not only responds to the call for environmental protection, but also indicates that the biodegradable plastic product market will usher in greater development space. The full chain management of plastic products, from production to circulation, to consumption and recycling, is constantly being optimized, and the effectiveness of governance is becoming increasingly evident, laying a solid foundation for creating a more green and sustainable future.

The upstream of the plastic products industry chain is mainly related to the petrochemical industry and mechanical equipment, which are the main sources of raw materials and equipment required for the production of plastic products. And downstream is the application field of plastic products, including the electronic and electrical industry, pharmaceutical industry, chemical industry, and daily necessities industry, with a very wide range of applications.

In various sub industries of plastic products, the sub industry with the highest proportion of production is other plastics, including plastic sheets, pipes, profiles, plastic ropes and woven products, plastic packaging boxes and containers, plastic parts, etc. The production of this category reached 49.222 million tons, accounting for 63.3% of the entire plastic products industry. Next is plastic film, with a production volume of 16.929 million tons, accounting for 21.8%.

These data indicate that the plastic products industry is showing a diversified development trend in various sub sectors, but other plastics, as the largest sub industry, still dominate. This distribution pattern reflects the demand and application of different plastic products in the market, and also provides broader space and opportunities for the development of the industry.

2、 Current Development Status of the Plastic Products Industry Market

The plastic products industry has become a huge industry after years of development. According to statistics, global plastic production has been increasing year by year, and the market size is constantly expanding. However, with the rapid development of the plastic products industry, it has also brought a series of environmental problems. Due to the non degradability of plastic products, a large amount of plastic waste has caused serious pollution to the environment. In addition, the development of the plastic products industry also faces issues such as resource scarcity and high energy consumption.

Overall, although the economic operation of the plastic products industry has been relatively stable, production has shown a slight downward trend since 2019. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China's plastic product production in 2022 was 77.716 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 4.3%. Despite a decrease in production, this figure still reaches 95% of the 2019 production, indicating that the industry as a whole has maintained a relatively stable operating trend.

In terms of regional distribution, the plastic product production of 11 provinces and cities in the east (excluding Taiwan) accounts for half of the country's total production, reaching 47.809 million tons, accounting for 61.5% of the country's total production. This proportion has decreased by 0.6 percentage points compared to the previous year. The proportion of the central region is 21.5%, the western region is 15.1%, and the northeast region only accounts for 1.9%, indicating that the industry is geographically dominated by the eastern region and steadily developing in the central and western regions.

In terms of export markets, China's plastic products will mainly be exported to Europe, America, and Asia in 2022, with Southeast Asia, the United States, and the European Union being the largest export markets. As the largest exporter of plastic products in China, the United States achieved a plastic product export value of 27.29 billion US dollars in 2022, accounting for 25.3% of the export market. This data indicates that Chinese plastic products have a certain competitive advantage and influence in the international market.

Although the plastic products industry has slightly decreased in production, it has shown a steady development trend in regional distribution and export markets. The plastic products industry in China is a vast and diverse market, covering a wide range of fields from daily necessities to industrial products. In recent years, with the rapid development of the Chinese economy and the improvement of consumption levels, the plastic products industry has experienced significant growth.

3、 The competitive landscape of the plastic products industry

There are many enterprises, but their scale is generally small. There are many domestic plastic product enterprises, but most of them are small in scale and have limited production capacity. This dispersed production pattern has led to a low overall technological level and unstable product quality in the industry.

Regional competition is evident. Due to the large amount of energy and raw materials required for the production of plastic products, enterprises often consider factors such as the source of raw materials and energy prices when selecting locations. This has led to a clear regional competition pattern in the domestic plastic product industry, with Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu and other places becoming gathering places for plastic product enterprises.

The price competition is fierce. Due to the large number of enterprises and severe product homogenization, price competition has become a common competitive mode in the industry. Enterprises attract customers by lowering prices, but this competitive approach often sacrifices product quality and the company's profitability.

Environmental protection requirements have increased. With the increasing environmental requirements of the country, the plastic product industry is facing increasingly strict environmental regulations and standards. Enterprises need to increase investment in environmental protection, improve resource utilization efficiency, and reduce environmental pollution, which undoubtedly increases their cost pressure.

4、 The Development Trends of the Plastic Products Industry

Sustainable development has become the mainstream of the industry. With the continuous improvement of environmental awareness, sustainable development has become an important development direction in the plastic product industry. Enterprises will pay more attention to environmental protection and sustainable development, continuously improve production processes and equipment, reduce energy consumption and environmental pollution. At the same time, consumers have increasingly high demands for environmental protection and sustainable development, which will also encourage enterprises to pay more attention to environmental protection and sustainable development.

Biodegradable plastics have become a research hotspot. Traditional plastic products are not easily degradable and cause serious pollution to the environment. Therefore, the development of biodegradable plastic products has become a current research hotspot. Biodegradable plastics can rapidly degrade in the natural environment, reducing pollution to the environment. At present, biodegradable plastics have achieved certain research results and are expected to become an important development direction in the plastic product industry in the future.

Degradable plastics will become mainstream. Due to the destructive impact of traditional plastic products on the environment, biodegradable plastics are gradually gaining popularity in the market. Degradable plastics can quickly decompose in the natural environment, reduce white pollution, and protect the ecological environment. With the advancement of technology and the reduction of production costs, the application range of biodegradable plastics will become increasingly broad.

Intelligence and automation have become industry trends. With the continuous progress of technology, intelligence and automation have become important development trends in various industries. In the plastic product industry, the application of intelligence and automation technology will also become increasingly widespread. Through the application of intelligence and automation technology, enterprises can significantly improve production efficiency, reduce costs, and improve product quality. Meanwhile, the application of intelligence and automation technology can also reduce manual intervention and lower the incidence of safety accidents.