The fission from "ton" to "gram" - Dongying's high-end chemical industry reshapes the industrial backbone
Our reporter Yang Ke and Li Ming
Dongying Daily reporter Zhang Libo
Reporter Yu Wenjing from Guangrao County Integrated Media Center
In early spring, at dawn in Dongying Port, a 100000 ton oil tanker slowly docked at the dock, and several oil transfer arms injected black crude oil into storage tanks. These 'industrial blood' are about to embark on a fantastic journey - from refining basic raw materials to high-end chemical new materials, from 'selling by ton' to 'selling by gram', from 'fuel' to 'materials', a series of' golden chains' are quietly extending at the end of the Yellow River.
More importantly, the added value of Dongying's chemical industry accounts for a higher proportion of the city's total industrial added value than the traditional refining industry, becoming the primary driving force for industrial growth.
Dongying, a city that thrives on oil, steadily shoulders the "first driving force" of industrial growth in the chemical industry and embarks on a new journey.
Change in Pattern
From 'One Oil Dominance' to Strong Chain Soaring
At the construction site of the 200000 ton petroleum additive project of Sitong Chemical in Dongying District Chemical Industry Park, welding sparks splattered and arc light flickered. At present, the company's orders have been scheduled until May this year, and the original production line is still unable to meet the demand at full capacity. "Project leader Ma Zhihua stood under the steel structure scaffolding, his voice drowned out by the roar of the impact drill, but his eyes were clear.
This busyness is a microcosm of the entire high-end chemical industry in Dongying.
Dongying City is the largest petrochemical industry base in China, with a crude oil processing capacity of 70.9 million tons per year, accounting for 37.9% of the province's total and 7.6% of the country's total, firmly ranking first among prefecture level cities in the country. There are currently 305 petrochemical enterprises above designated size in the city, with a total operating revenue of 627.03 billion yuan by 2025, accounting for 64% of the city's total industrial revenue.
Behind the numbers lies the strength support of the enterprise. Five enterprises, namely Lihua Yi Group, Qicheng Petrochemical, Weilian Chemical, Kenli Petrochemical, and Shida Shenghua, have been identified as provincial-level chain main enterprises. Thirteen enterprises have been shortlisted for the Top 500 Chinese Enterprises, including 11 petrochemical enterprises and 16 private enterprises. Among them, 14 petrochemical enterprises have been shortlisted, ranking first in the province in terms of the number of enterprises included.
However, behind the glamorous data lies the structural anxiety buried by the once dominant oil market. How to break path dependence and promote transformation and breakthrough has always been the core thread running through the development of Dongying petrochemical industry.
The transfer occurs on the 'chain'. In recent years, Dongying City has adhered to the development direction of "high-end, intelligent, green, and clustered", accelerating the extension of the industrial chain and enhancing the value chain. As of now, the city has formed 38 segmented industrial chains that connect upstream and downstream. Polyacrylamide production capacity accounts for nearly half of the country's total, while lithium battery electrolyte solvent production capacity ranks first among prefecture level cities in the country. MTBE production scale accounts for about one-fifth of the country's total, making it the largest carbonate lithium-ion battery electrolyte solvent production base in the country.
The city is deeply implementing the "chain leader system", concentrating advantageous resources to accelerate the landing of landmark major projects such as Dongying Port Refining and Chemical Integration and Guangrao Refining and Chemical Integration, and focusing on filling the gap in ethylene production. Not long ago, at the first New Year's meeting in Dongying City, it was explicitly required that "the petrochemical industry, as the 'basic foundation' and 'ballast stone' of Dongying's economy, should mobilize the efforts of the whole city to accelerate the landing and construction of integrated refining and chemical projects, and accelerate the transformation towards new chemical materials and high-end specialty chemicals
From "one barrel of oil" to "one grain of engineering plastics", from traditional fuels to high-end materials, Dongying Chemical is undergoing a magnificent transformation of high-quality development with a steady flow of water.
Chain Change
Advancing downstream and leaping towards the high-end
In the Lihua Yi area of Lijin Binhai Chemical Industry Park, the 100000 tons/year ASA special engineering resin production plant is operating smoothly. The white resin particles are evenly poured down the conveying pipeline, and the workers in the packaging workshop are skilled in operating the equipment and transporting the finished products back and forth with forklifts.
Since its official launch in June 2025, this domestically first fully integrated ASA resin production facility has been operating steadily for over six months, ending China's long-term dependence on imported high-end chemical new material ASA resin. The total investment of this project is 2.2 billion yuan. It started construction in March 2024 and was completed and put into operation in just over 10 months. The approved central budget funds set a record for the highest awards and subsidies in this field in Dongying City in recent years.
ASA resin is a key material in the high-end manufacturing field, with a weather resistance 10 times higher than ABS resin. It can maintain 75% room temperature impact resistance in extreme cold of minus 30 degrees Celsius, and is widely used in fields such as automobiles, building materials, electronic appliances, photovoltaics, 5G communication, etc. The on-site technician pointed to the resin particles flowing in the conveying pipeline and explained, "It's like putting 'all-weather armor' on the material, which can adapt to outdoor special environments such as sun exposure, rain, and strong winds, making domestic high-end plastics fearless of wind and rain from now on
The key to breaking the monopoly lies in the dual breakthroughs of technological innovation and the layout of the entire industry chain. For the first time in China, the project adopts the internationally leading lotion grafting bulk SAN blending process technology, and uses the continuous reaction method to produce high rubber powder, which effectively solves the problems of high production cost and unstable quality of the traditional intermittent reaction method, and can realize the rapid switching between various ASA resin brands.
Lihua Yi Group has been deeply involved in the field of petrochemical new materials for more than 30 years, and has the independent production capacity of upstream raw materials such as styrene, acrylonitrile, MMA, AMS, etc. Based on this foundation, the project has built a complete industrial chain of "refining propylene/ethylbenzene acrylonitrile/styrene/AMS-ASA special engineering resin". At present, the group has established four full industry chains including PC, ABS, PS, ASA, and nine industrial chains including lithium battery electrolyte solvent new energy industry chain, becoming the main enterprise of the high-end chemical industry chain in Shandong Province.
Previously, we sold 'a barrel of oil', but now we sell 'one grain at a time', "said the person in charge of the company, picking up a handful of crystal clear engineering plastic pellets." They will be used for car headlights and medical equipment, and their added value has increased several times
In Dongying Port Economic Development Zone, Weilian Chemical's PX project is the only aromatic hydrocarbon project in Shandong Province included in the national "Petrochemical Industry Planning and Layout Plan", which has achieved the full industry chain connection of "crude oil naphtha PX PTA functional polyester materials" in the province. The company relies on the collaborative system of "integrated research and development, dual location layout" of the group, gathers more than 140 researchers, and continues to carry out research on production technology optimization and innovation. As of July 2025, it has obtained 116 invention patents. The 1.5 million tons/year polyester packaging material project of Fuhai (Shandong) Packaging Materials Co., Ltd. has been completed and put into operation, and the polyester bottle flakes have been fully mass-produced and launched.
Wanda Petrochemical Group interprets the "chain change" in another way. On the giant screen in the central control room, the reporter saw that crude oil was "split" into basic oil products such as gasoline and diesel after catalytic cracking, as well as key chemical raw materials such as propane, propylene, and C4. Acrylic is supplied directly to the 260000 tons/year acrylonitrile project of Korul Company, which is separated by a wall, through a closed pipeline, while C4 is transported to the butadiene unit.
The left and right neighbors are the upstream and downstream, and the industrial park is the industrial chain, "said Jia Tongchun, Deputy General Manager of Shandong Tianhong Chemical Co., Ltd. The company focuses on developing high-end green chemicals and new materials, realizing the integration of petrochemical and rubber from" a drop of oil to a tire ", and building an industrial pattern from Indonesian crude oil extraction and port terminals to petroleum refining, downstream fine chemicals, pharmaceutical intermediates, new materials, rubber production, and tire manufacturing. It has become one of the longest and most complete refining enterprises in the national industrial chain.
The hydrogen sulfide gas generated during the refining process is traditionally converted into sulfur, but Wanda Petrochemical's annual output of 350000 tons of sulfuric acid project processes it into sulfuric acid, which is all used as raw material for downstream acrylonitrile and MMA projects. According to the calculation of saving 80 yuan in shipping costs per ton, it can save nearly 30 million yuan in shipping costs for downstream projects every year, "said the project leader.
From refining to new materials, from "selling by ton" to "selling by gram", Dongying Chemical's value chain is being reshaped.
Ecological Change
Innovation, Circulation, and Green "Trio"
At the Shandong Province High end Petrochemical Innovation and Entrepreneurship Community Chemical Pilot Base in Dongying Port Economic Development Zone, the PCT and its copolymer pilot workshops are operating in an orderly manner. After the pilot plant is put into use, it can produce polyester products such as PCT, PCTG, PETG, etc., and will prioritize the production of domestic polyester products that have not yet been industrialized, with high added value and high technical difficulty. ”Li You, Deputy Director of the Biochemical Division of the pilot base, introduced that for polyester products with high demand, process package transfer and technical services can be provided to promote the development of Dongying's aromatic hydrocarbon industry chain towards the mid to high end.
The transformation of scientific and technological achievements goes through four stages: sampling, engineering, productization, and industrialization, with the pilot stage playing a crucial role. Dongying Port Economic Development Zone relies on the largest and most comprehensive chemical pilot base in the province, exploring the formation of two innovative development mechanisms: "enterprise problem setting, community unveiling, joint research and development, and cluster pilot transformation" and "technology introduction, pilot certification, and cluster transformation". A total of 22 innovative pilot projects have been implemented, and 12 projects have been transformed on-site, with R&D investment accounting for over 6.4% of GDP. The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Community has nurtured and incubated five technology-based enterprises, including Shandong Yiwei New Materials, Jiechuang Energy, and Shandong Qiantai Technology Research.
Innovation is the engine that injects power into industrial upgrading. There are 844 high-tech enterprises and 1530 technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises in Dongying City, an increase of 154% and 144% respectively compared to the end of the 13th Five Year Plan period. The number of high-quality small and medium-sized enterprises, such as the national specialized, refined, and new "little giants" and manufacturing industry champions, continues to rise. The R&D investment of the whole society has exceeded 10 billion yuan, and the net inflow of young talents has been achieved for 8 consecutive years.
In Guangrao Chemical Industry Park, the story of innovation is equally exciting. Entering the laboratory of the "Development and Industrialization of Hot Melt Pressure Sensitive Adhesive based Medical Materials" project of New Holy Era New Materials (Dongying) Co., Ltd., staff are adding materials to the reaction kettle for polymerization reaction. This project adopts silane coupling technology to break through the bottleneck of low-temperature drug loading technology in the industry. It not only increases the drug loading capacity, but also expands the scope of application of transdermal patch drugs, injecting key impetus into the development of traditional Chinese medicine transdermal patches. New material companies like New Holy Era are accelerating their clustering in Guangrao Chemical Industry Park.
Circulation is the link that tightly connects enterprises in the park. At Zhenhua Petrochemical, the first phase of the 750000 ton/year propane dehydrogenation unit was put into operation in August 2024, using UOP Oleflex technology, with a globally leading product conversion rate and a 20% lower energy consumption index; The second phase of the 200000 tons/year maleic anhydride plant will be completed by China Communications Construction Corporation in December 2025; The 30/670000 ton/year epoxy propane/styrene co production unit is expected to be completed by CCCC this year.
The brilliance of this project lies in its' loop '. It produces 550 million cubic meters of industrial hydrogen and 1.6 million tons of medium pressure steam annually, which can be supplied to Yatong and surrounding petrochemical enterprises, equivalent to reducing 260000 tons of coal consumption and reducing carbon emissions by 600000 tons per year. Enterprises can achieve 'wall supply' through pipeline transportation, which is efficient, low in loss, and cost-effective, "said the relevant person in charge of Zhenhua Petrochemical. As the leader of the propylene industry chain in Dongying Port, the project aims to advance the goal of building a billion yuan propylene industry chain in Dongying Port.
Green is the direction, leading the industry towards low-carbon transformation. On the central control screen of the intelligent park comprehensive management service platform in Guangrao Chemical Industry Park, real-time scenes and dynamic data curves of enterprises are updated in a rolling manner, and core functions such as safety production supervision and environmental pollution source monitoring can be achieved through "one graph". The operator can easily access the comprehensive data of enterprise safety and environmental protection by tapping the screen, and quickly analyze and identify abnormal states. The park has been successively rated as a national level smart chemical park and a green chemical park, with 21 Shandong Province digital economy "Morning Star Factories", 3 provincial-level intelligent factories, and 2 provincial-level digital workshops.
What is even more exciting is that by 2025, two 250000 ton single point mooring berths at Dongying Port will be fully built, making it the second and first super large crude oil terminal in China and the first in the north to adopt single point mooring. The total investment of the project is 3.7 billion yuan, with an annual throughput capacity of 34.93 million tons. 250000 tons of international oil tankers can be directly unloaded, saving more than 1 billion yuan in transportation costs for hinterland enterprises every year. This means that Dongying Chemical's "outlet" is moving from shallow waters to deep blue.
The added value of the chemical industry has surpassed that of oil refining as the primary driving force. 38 industrial chains are intertwined at the end of the Yellow River, and "wall supply" has become a standard configuration in the park. What we see is not only the transformation and upgrading of an industry, but also the determination of a resource-based city to break away from path dependence and reshape its industrial backbone.
Information source: Dazhong Daily
