Market Dynamics of Polycarbonate in the First Half of 2025

Supply and Demand Situation

From the supply side, there are numerous manufacturers of global PC plastic pellets, leading to fierce market competition. Some internationally renowned enterprises, such as Germany's Bayer, the United States' GE Plastics, and Japan's Mitsui Chemicals, hold important positions in the market by virtue of advanced technologies and large-scale production capabilities. Meanwhile, domestic enterprises have been rising in recent years. Companies like Luxi Chemical and Bluestar Chemical have gradually narrowed the gap with international enterprises through technological innovation and capacity expansion. In the first half of 2025, with the gradual release of new production capacities of some enterprises, the overall market supply showed a steady upward trend.

On the demand side, the demand for PC plastic pellets varies in major application fields. The automotive industry, especially the rapid development of new energy vehicles, has driven strong demand for PC materials. New energy vehicles extensively use PC materials in charging piles, battery casings, interior parts, etc. As the penetration rate of the new energy vehicle market continues to increase, the demand for PC keeps growing. In the electronic and electrical industry, although the overall market growth is relatively stable, with the popularization of emerging technologies such as 5G and the Internet of Things, the upgrading and replacement of related electronic products have accelerated, and the demand for high-performance PC materials has also been rising steadily. In the construction industry, affected by the advancement of global urbanization, the demand for PC as a glass substitute maintains stable growth. However, in some traditional application fields, such as some plastic product industries that are more price-sensitive, the demand growth is restricted to a certain extent due to the relatively high price of PC.

Price Trend

In the first half of 2025, the price trend of PC plastic pellets was relatively complicated. Affected by various factors such as raw material costs, market supply and demand relations, and the macroeconomic environment, the price of PC showed a trend of first rising and then falling. At the beginning of the year, due to the price increase of raw materials such as bisphenol A, and the decline in production capacity of PC manufacturers in some regions due to equipment maintenance and other reasons, the market supply was tightened periodically, leading to a significant rise in PC prices. However, with the release of new production capacities and the lower-than-expected growth in downstream demand, the market supply and demand relationship gradually eased, and prices began to callback in the second quarter. In addition, the uncertainty of international trade situations, such as adjustments in tariff policies, also had a certain impact on the price fluctuations of PC. Overall, compared with the same period last year, the price of PC plastic pellets in the first half of 2025 was still at a relatively high level, but the intensified price fluctuations brought greater challenges to cost control and market decision-making for upstream and downstream enterprises.

Technological Innovation and Development Trends

In terms of technological innovation, with the deepening of the concept of environmental protection and sustainable development, the PC plastic pellet industry is also actively exploring new development directions. On the one hand, progress has been made in the research and development of bio-based PC. Bio-based PC uses renewable biomass resources as raw materials. Compared with traditional PC, it can reduce dependence on fossil energy and lower carbon emissions in the production process, thus having better environmental friendliness. Although the production cost of bio-based PC is relatively high and its market share is small at present, with the continuous maturity of technology and the advancement of large-scale production, it is expected to occupy a larger market share in the future.

On the other hand, the research and development of high-performance PC materials is also a key direction of the industry. By modifying PC, such as adding special additives and adopting new polymerization processes, the performance of PC is further improved, enabling it to meet higher-end and more complex application needs. For example, developing PC materials with higher heat resistance, stronger impact resistance, and better chemical corrosion resistance to adapt to the stringent performance requirements of materials in aerospace, high-end electronics and other fields. In addition, with the development of intelligent manufacturing technology, the production process of PC plastic pellets is constantly upgrading towards intelligence and automation. By introducing advanced production equipment and control systems, production efficiency is improved, production costs are reduced, and the stability of product quality is enhanced.

Looking forward to the future, the PC plastic pellet market will continue to be affected by factors such as demand changes in various application fields, technological innovation, and environmental protection policies. With the further recovery of the global economy and the rise of emerging markets, the application of PC in automotive, electronics, construction and other fields is expected to continue to expand, and the market scale will also maintain a growth trend. However, at the same time, industry competition will become increasingly fierce. Enterprises need to continuously strengthen technological innovation, improve product quality and performance, and optimize cost structures to cope with the challenges brought by market changes and gain an advantageous position in the fierce market competition.