For countries entering the stage of heavy chemical industry development, heavy chemical industry is very sensitive to fluctuations in crude oil prices. Statistics show that in recent years, crude oil consumed in the manufacture of chemical raw materials and products accounted for about 8.5% of total crude oil consumption. Crude oil, as an important raw material for petrochemical industries such as chemical raw materials and products manufacturing and chemical fiber manufacturing, will directly increase the cost of the petrochemical industry. Since 2005, oil prices have continued to fluctuate above $60/barrel, and the characteristic of low price conductivity in the chemical industry has begun to manifest itself. At the same time, it has been squeezed by the expansion of industry capacity and the decline in downstream demand. Under this circumstance, the cost of soaring oil prices will increase, and the chemical industry will have to rely more on itself. As oil prices rise, the sales of petrochemical products are promising, and companies compete for raw materials, causing shortage of raw materials for some enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, which affects the normal production and operation of enterprises. Due to the increase in raw material prices, the production costs and transportation costs of enterprises have increased significantly. As a result, some companies are plagued by tight funding and operating risks.
The chemical industry has strong characteristics of linkage between the upstream and downstream industries. Under the influence of a poorly conducted price mechanism, the victims of the most volatile oil prices are often not engaged in oil-refining and chemical industries directly related to petroleum, but use chemical products as raw materials. Downstream processing industry.
Downstream processing industries such as the three major synthetic materials, fine chemicals, etc., will bear the great risk of oil price fluctuations. The increase in prices of chemical raw materials brought about by the rise in oil prices has a direct impact on the downstream processing industry in terms of increased costs and lower profits. If it cannot be effectively transferred out, downstream chemical companies will face operational difficulties. For the Chinese chemical industry, in the downstream processing sector, the product market is quite competitive and the product prices are already in line with international standards. With rising prices of basic chemical raw materials such as ethylene and polypropylene, companies cannot use price increases to shift costs. The engulfing of profits, because the price increase means the loss of the market, which is the biggest dilemma faced by the downstream processing industry. At the same time, the international market has fierce competition in the plastics, rubber, and fiber markets, few varieties of high value-added products, and thin profits. The risk of high volatility in crude oil prices has undergone a severe test of the risk of oil processing intermediates.
In the case of wide fluctuations in oil prices, the sales price of chemical products in the world was strongly correlated with the price of crude oil, and they both fluctuated in unison. Now China's chemical market and the international chemical market are in synch with each other, with strong linkage. Under the influence of the international financial crisis, the chemical industry is facing high risks of market shrinkage and cost migration. Therefore, at the enterprise level, it is an inevitable choice to cope with the high risks of oil price fluctuations and further improve the company's management and management capabilities. Otherwise, they will face the danger of being eliminated because they cannot digest and absorb the pressure of rising prices of upstream products. For Chinese chemical companies, they must rely on scientific and technological progress to reduce consumption and costs, actively seek for alternative raw materials, explore new markets, pay close attention to the dynamics of demand in the international chemical market, and timely adjust the production of marketable products, thereby reducing the The risks and pressures brought about by price fluctuations make enterprises out of trouble.
In May 2009, the international crude oil futures price broke through 66 US dollars/barrel, nearly a 30% increase in one month, the largest monthly increase in 10 years. The fluctuation of oil prices affects the nerves of the chemical industry. For many chemical companies around the world, the volatility of oil prices is a double-edged sword, but the overall increase in operating risk will reduce the profitability of the chemical industry. At present, the global financial crisis has caused the market demand to shrink. The sensitivity of chemical companies to fluctuations in oil prices has further increased, and the development of the chemical industry in the world is facing increasing cost fluctuation risks.