Chemical industry

1. The Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation have announced the cancellation of BDO value-added tax export tax rebate (original rebate rate of 13%) from April 1, 2026, further compressing export profits and forcing domestic enterprises to accelerate domestic sales and downstream deep processing layout.

2. Recently, the construction of a 3GWh special lithium-ion battery production line project for Hunan Shaoshan Yusheng Technology Co., Ltd. has been approved. It is reported that Hunan Shaoshan Yusheng Technology Co., Ltd. plans to invest 1.01 billion yuan to renovate and expand the existing 0.5GWh special polymer lithium-ion battery production line. After the project is completed, the total annual production scale will be 0.05GWh special polymer lithium-ion batteries and 3GWh special lithium-ion batteries.

3. Recently, the signing ceremony for the annual production of 20000 tons of silicon carbon anode project between Songshan District Government and Epono (Shenzhen) New Energy Technology Group Co., Ltd. was held in Xi'an. The project will construct two production lines with an annual production capacity of 20000 tons. The project is expected to start construction in March 2026 and be put into operation by the end of the year.

4. Recently, the online supervision platform for investment projects in Hubei Province released the filing announcement for the second phase project of producing 20000 tons of ultra-high purity quartz sand annually. The production capacity of 20000 tons of ultra-high purity quartz sand per year after the project is put into operation.

5. On January 20th, Shengmei New Materials (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd. invested in the construction of a new project in Chengnan Industrial Park, Heping Town, Changxing County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province. The project will be implemented in two phases. The final production capacity will be 50000 tons of water-based lotion, 50000 tons of new acrylic resin synthetic materials, 10000 tons of water-based coatings and 8000 tons of water-based additives.

6. The 450000 ton styrene plant at Tianjin Bohua was scheduled to restart at the end of January due to maintenance issues. However, there are rumors in the market that it may be delayed until early February due to quality inspection problems.

The core dynamic of the 450000 tons/year styrene plant of Sinochem Quanzhou is the early completion of maintenance (unplanned shutdown from December 2025, originally planned for maintenance until the end of February 2026), which is significantly earlier than the previously planned end of February. It is planned to restart on January 25th, and the supporting pure benzene plant has completed maintenance. It is expected to gradually increase load after restart, and it is expected to resume full load operation in February.

CosMar's 575000 tons/year styrene plant in the United States will begin shutdown and maintenance this week, with an expected restart time of 2-3 weeks.

7. On January 21, 2026, the outflow of ethylene glycol from mainstream ports in East China was as follows: the shipment volume of ethylene glycol from the mainstream warehouse area in Zhangjiagang was about 6500 tons; The shipment volume of ethylene glycol from the two main storage areas in Taicang is about 1100 tons.

8. In December 2025, the import volume of soda ash was 3473.52 tons, an increase of 3221.45 tons compared to the previous month. The cumulative import volume of soda ash from January to December was 25155.20 tons. In December 2025, the export volume of soda ash was 232800 tons, an increase of 43400 tons compared to the previous month. The cumulative export volume of soda ash from January to December was 2.1938 million tons.