Green Tide, Follow the Times! Busy transformation of rubber industry

　　"China is a large developing country with a population of more than 1.4 billion. It is obviously unworkable to adopt a low-level and extensive development path that discharges a large amount of pollutants, consumes a large amount of natural resources, and our resource and environment carrying capacity is not sustainable. We must Take the modern road of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.” A few days ago, Huang Runqiu, minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said in the first session of the first session of the 14th National People’s Congress “Ministerial Passage” interview.
　　Adhere to the harmonious coexistence of man and nature, that is, take the road of green development. As rubber is an important strategic resource, the rubber industry has naturally become one of the pillar industries of the national economy. The "14th Five-Year Plan" proposes that the development goal of my country's rubber industry is to enter the intermediate stage of a rubber industry powerhouse by the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan". To achieve this goal, how should my country's rubber industry exert its strength in the era of green development?
　　Primary processing enterprises face environmental protection problems
　　. As a renewable natural resource with superior comprehensive properties, natural rubber is widely used in national defense, medical, industrial and other fields due to its high elasticity, high strength, high elongation and wear resistance. It is understood that the production process of standard rubber in my country is divided into three types according to different granulation methods: hammer milling method, shearing method and extrusion method. The main production process includes fresh latex purification, latex coagulation, granulation, drying, grading, packaging . The production of latex uses a concentrating centrifuge to remove part of the water in the glue to achieve the purpose of increasing the content of dry glue. In the process of rubber production, processing sewage will inevitably be produced. In addition to rubber whey, there are also proteins, lipids, sugars and inorganic salts, which belong to high-concentration organic sewage and need to be cleaned in depth.
　　In recent years, the pressure of green transformation has prompted the rubber industry to upgrade its technology and adjust its industrial structure. "At present, my country's rubber industry is still facing many challenges, such as the layout of the industry structure, the intensity of resource input, and the harmless recycling of waste rubber comprehensive utilization. Among them, environmental protection utilization is still a difficult point in the development of the rubber industry. As an important industrial raw material, rubber is in Waste water and waste gas generated during processing are directly discharged without treatment, which will cause serious environmental pollution." Cai Dukun, deputy secretary of the party committee and general manager of Hainan Rubber Golden Rubber Company, told the Futures Daily reporter that under the call of the green economy, the rubber industry is green. Transformational development is getting more and more attention. Some leading and powerful enterprises are already increasing capital investment, promoting technological transformation and large-scale mergers, improving production efficiency, and reducing pollution emissions. However, some enterprises with poor strength have meager profits and are exhausted to cope with the fierce market competition. They have no more energy to transform and upgrade, and are likely to be integrated or even eliminated one after another.
　　During the years of production, Cai Dukun summarized some of the environmental problems they encountered.
　　First, the exhaust gas treatment effect is not ideal. With the completion of the wastewater treatment upgrading project of the concentrated milk processing branch in 2020, the problem of mismatch between wastewater treatment capacity and processing capacity has been basically solved, and the wastewater treatment capacity and effect have been improved. Waste gas treatment is more difficult than wastewater treatment. The waste gas emitted in the primary rubber processing stage contains malodorous gas and has a pungent taste. The main emission methods are organized emission (discharged through an exhaust pipe with a height of not less than 15 meters) and fugitive emission. The main sources of unorganized waste gas are firstly the waste gas from the decomposition of organic matter in the rubber plantation gel stacking, processing, drying and packaging processes; secondly, the volatilization of ammonia gas used to keep fresh glue raw materials; The volatilization of sulfuric acid solution; the fourth is the waste gas generated from wastewater treatment; the fifth is the gas generated during wastewater acidification and aeration treatment. Unorganized waste gas will be generated during the whole process of raw material storage, production and processing of natural rubber, which is difficult to collect centrally, resulting in difficulty in treatment. At present, there is no mature technology and effective measures for waste gas treatment, which is a difficult problem in the rubber primary processing industry and has become a major problem that restricts the development of the rubber primary processing industry.
　　Second, urbanization has brought great challenges to the environmental protection work of rubber processing plants. The rubber processing factory was initially built far away from residential areas, but with the development of the economy and the urbanization of the countryside, many residents built their houses near the rubber processing factory, and some residents' houses were even separated from the processing factory by a wall. Since disorganized waste gas is generated throughout the rubber processing process, the existing waste gas treatment process cannot effectively control the waste gas. The surrounding residents cannot stand the smell and continue to complain about environmental protection, which further puts pressure on the environmental protection work of the rubber processing plant.
　　Third, it is more difficult to transform the environmental protection facilities of individual rubber processing plants. The environmental protection facilities of individual rubber processing factories have undergone several rounds of transformation, and the construction methods of each round of transformation are different, resulting in insufficient connection of equipment in the environmental protection station and unreasonable layout, which increases the difficulty of subsequent transformation.
　　The growth of the application of environmentally friendly varieties is inevitable.
　　"Currently, the overall production mode of natural rubber primary processing is still relatively backward. Low employee income, high product quality requirements, imprecise quality control, low automation and intelligence of production lines, complex on-site management, poor production environment and other shortcomings.” Cai Dukun added that some factories have also carried out effective optimization and adjustment.
　　According to him, the first is to update the iterative production equipment, purchase imported and domestic centrifuges with higher processing capacity and better performance to replace the original centrifuges, and effectively improve the production capacity and product quality of thick milk products; the second is to transform the miscellaneous rubber production line , realize the production of qualified gel-labeled gel products by one-time creping, and greatly reduce the processing cost of gel-labeled gels; the third is to automate and intelligently transform the key equipment and production lines for primary processing.
　　In addition, he said, "Hainan Rubber has also developed new products to expand the product depth of natural rubber. One is to develop thick milk for weather balloons, such as the 'wandering balloon' that has been popular on the Internet recently, which is the thick milk used for weather balloons. The second is to develop a special rubber for large-scale engineering tires - clay masterbatch, to improve the tear resistance of engineering tires; the third is to develop a series of new products such as epoxy rubber."
　　"In the long run, the growth of the application of environmentally friendly rubber varieties is an inevitable trend." Cai Dukun said that the sustainable development of natural rubber has received more and more attention. German tire manufacturer Continental has found a way to label sustainable rubber to help end users identify whether the rubber used in tires is from sustainable sources. Including domestic Linglong Tire, more and more companies have joined the global sustainable Natural Rubber Platform (GPSNR) to alleviate a series of ecological problems (soil compaction, soil erosion and quality degradation, etc.) and social problems (community interests, labor rights, etc.) caused by the natural rubber industry chain. It can be seen that sustainable natural rubber has a bright future.
　　According to the reporter of Futures Daily, in terms of synthetic rubber, because synthetic rubber produces a large amount of volatile organic compounds in the production process, it pollutes the environment relatively. The development of new types of products, such as the transition from tire raw material synthetic rubber to more environmentally friendly models, the use of more environmentally friendly solution-polymerized styrene-butadiene and 1723, 1739 series filled with environmentally friendly oil, and rare earth butadiene rubber series.
　　The upgrading of the rubber industry structure conforms to the times.
　　Under the background of energy saving, emission reduction and "double carbon", the country attaches great importance to the development of green economy. The development of green economy specifically includes the greening of production methods and greening of lifestyles. Specific to the upstream and downstream of the rubber industry, it can be roughly divided into green rubber production, green additive production, green tire and product production, and green tire and product use scenarios.
　　Following General Secretary Xi Jinping's emphasis on "improving the natural rubber industry support policy" during his inspection in Hainan Province in 2022, the No. 1 Central Document in 2023 once again pointed out "improving the natural rubber support policy". In order to actively implement the new development concept, Hainan Province and Yunnan Province respectively issued three-year action plans (2022-2024) on the development of natural rubber in 2022, in order to strengthen the management of rubber plantations, scientifically prevent and control diseases and insect pests, and build green, efficient and high-yielding rubber plantations Under these measures, the production and production capacity of natural rubber in my country will be guaranteed, and the quality and efficiency of the natural rubber industry will be improved by upgrading and transforming low-yield and low-quality rubber gardens and promoting the application of new green processing technologies and processes.
　　Under the guidance of the concept of green development, rubber has undergone changes at the production end, such as forest planting and breeding of rubber in Hainan, and forest restoration projects in Yunnan. Gao Ning, a rubber analyst at Qisheng Futures, said that in the natural rubber processing link, the promotion of new and clean energy from the use of fuel will help reduce the pollution of traditional energy sources such as coal, and can also reduce costs in the long run.
　　"It can be said that the future development direction of my country's rubber industry is to stabilize output and improve quality." Zhu Jintao, a rubber analyst at Everbright Futures, said that under the background of fully implementing the concept of green development, rubber planting will transform from extensive to fine, and rubber processing will also be changed from One-way deep processing upgrade. In the future, the trend of diverting standard rubber to latex will become more obvious. At present, Hainan basically focuses on latex processing, and Yunnan has begun to deploy latex production capacity.
　　With regard to the advancement of green lifestyles, the green usage scenarios of tires and products are more in line with the requirements of green lifestyles. At present, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in my country continues to increase, with a penetration rate of more than 30% in the past five years, and the sales of new energy vehicles have increased significantly. "The growth of the new energy vehicle market has driven the revolution in the tire market." Gao Ning said that in order to keep up with the demand for new energy vehicles for new tires, new tires such as lighter weight, stronger braking performance, lower rolling resistance, low noise and explosion-proof Technology began to be superimposed on a small tire. This new type of "stacked BUFF" tire has higher requirements for rubber materials.
　　To further promote the green development of the rubber industry, Shanjin Futures energy analyst Zhu Meixia suggested that, first of all, use environmentally friendly, low-carbon and high-efficiency rubber raw materials and various rubber additives to increase the research and development of new environmentally friendly materials; improve traditional processes , Realize a new production line that can reduce energy consumption and environmental pollution, and realize carbon reduction through product structure upgrades. Secondly, carry out energy substitution and use new energy instead of traditional energy to reduce carbon emissions. Thirdly, increase the recovery rate of waste rubber, classify waste rubber, and use it step by step. Rubber powder and recycled rubber should be used as the main way of resource utilization, tire retreading should be used as the main method of reduction, and thermal cracking should be used as the final means. Finally, rubber companies can use new financing tools and financial products to continuously expand their financial business to achieve green development.
　　Zhu Jintao believes that the green transformation of the rubber industry needs to pay attention to several key points: one is to promote the renewal and transformation of low-yield and low-quality rubber gardens of natural rubber, and improve the care level of rubber forests, so as to achieve the effect of improving the quality of glue. The second is to improve the natural rubber production process, eliminate outdated production capacity, and solve the sewage environmental protection problems brought about by the production process of natural rubber products through combined processes. At the same time, the utilization rate of by-products such as rubber seed oil and rubber wood processing is improved. The third is to increase the development of high value-added products, increase production profits, and promote the R&D and production of high-end special rubber such as shape memory rubber, environmentally friendly polymer rubber, and modified rubber. Zhu Jintao, a rubber analyst at Everbright Futures, said.
　　Cai Dukun said that the first step in realizing the transformation and upgrading of the natural rubber industry chain is to complete product upgrades, with conventional natural rubber raw materials as the basis for scale and market positioning, with differentiation, high-end, Customized products are the point of profit improvement, and new rubber materials and rubber wood and other related products are supplements to efficiency and capabilities. The second step is customer upgrades, and gradually establish a hierarchical and differentiated benign customer structure. Core customers rely on long-term and stable cooperation and the supply of differentiated high value-added products, pursuing the improvement of technical capabilities, brand influence and economic value, mainly including large-scale rubber product enterprise users and international large-scale traders with high business volume and stability. General customers use conventional varieties Focus on large-scale cooperation, and pursue the overall improvement of market share and resource utilization, mainly including small and medium-sized rubber product companies and small and medium-sized traders. The third step is to realize the green upgrade of the natural rubber primary processing industry. By optimizing the processing layout, Accelerate the elimination of backward production capacity, shut down the processing plants that do not meet the environmental protection standards, integrate the existing rubber primary processing plants on the island, form a rubber primary processing network that is coordinated across the island, and further process on this basis, planning in Sichuan, Anhui, Qingdao, The layout of Jiangsu, Yunnan, Hainan and other places.
　　Rubber futures help the industry to develop greenly
　　. An important part.
　　"In response to the country's high-quality development requirements, the rubber processing field has continuously improved the level of intelligence and environmental protection, increased research and development of high-quality rubber varieties, and reduced waste water and waste gas emissions are problems that the industry needs to solve urgently, but the rubber industry is also facing downstream demand. Relatively weak and low prices. Natural rubber futures provide rubber manufacturers with an effective tool to avoid price risks and help lock in processing profits, thereby facilitating technological upgrading and environmental protection transformation." Zhu Jintao said.
　　At present, there are two major rubber futures listed in my country. One is the natural rubber futures of the Shanghai Futures Exchange, which has been on the market for a long time, has a large trading volume, and is highly active. It is equipped with corresponding on-market options, which can be said to be a futures variety with complete trading channels One of them; the other is TSR20 futures of Shanghai International Energy Exchange Center, which is mainly connected to Singapore TSR20 futures, which takes imported natural rubber as the delivery product and belongs to one of the earlier international varieties in my country.
　　"The two major natural rubber futures complement each other and go hand in hand to form a complete futures and spot system of futures Unicom entities." Gao Ning said that natural rubber, as a green and renewable resource, is different from synthetic rubber produced by petrochemicals. It has sustainable production, less environmental pollution and The advantage of low barriers to transformation. However, subject to geographical and climatic conditions, my country's self-produced natural rubber resources are limited, and the dependence on imports exceeds 80%. Since natural rubber is highly dependent on imports and the production of domestic rubber is concentrated, a complete trade financial system of spot-futures-options has been formed in all links of the industrial chain such as production and trade, and warehouse receipt pledge financing, trade with rights, and supply chains have been derived. Chain finance and other rich forms of financial trade.
　　In recent years, the domestic natural rubber industry is facing problems such as continued low market prices, inability to effectively guarantee the income of rubber farmers, abandoning and cutting down trees, etc., which affect the development of the natural rubber industry. Faced with such a policy background and industrial difficulties, Shanghai Futures Exchange and PICC P&C launched the natural rubber "insurance + futures" project, and achieved tangible results.
　　Fan Xiaohong, general manager of Hainan Rubber Trade Risk Control Department, said that for rubber farmers with a single source of income, the continued decline in natural rubber prices directly leads to a shrinking of their income, which is likely to cause a series of family problems and social conflicts. The ability of rubber farmers to resist market price fluctuations and appropriate economic protection can effectively prevent the phenomenon of returning to poverty.
　　"'Insurance + Futures' makes full use of futures and options trading methods to ensure the production income of rubber farmers, effectively stabilize the upstream production and supply capacity, and help the local government achieve the task of poverty alleviation and achieve the goal of helping the green development of the natural rubber industry .” Gao Ning said.
　　In addition, the sluggish price of rubber not only leads to the inability of the income of rubber farmers to be guaranteed, but also the pressure of survival of natural rubber processing enterprises. The price of rubber is low, the willingness of rubber farmers to tap rubber is weak, the production of raw materials is reduced, the processing enterprises have been "sufficient" for a long time, and the production capacity is operating at low load. In addition, the depreciation of factory equipment is high, the management costs are high, and the related costs are difficult to dilute, which ultimately leads to the situation that processing enterprises cannot make ends meet for a long time . "At present, there are still a certain proportion of rubber farmers who have not purchased price insurance. I hope that in the future, we can strengthen publicity, expand the coverage of 'insurance + futures', increase the willingness of rubber farmers to tap rubber, and let 'insurance + futures' better serve the healthy development of the rubber industry. .” Fan Xiaohong said.
　　"With the improvement of futures contract trading rules, the international opening of TSR20, the development of the options market, and the listing of new varieties in the future, all will bring innovation momentum to the natural rubber industry and provide more abundant hedging tools for industrial development. Futures and options go hand in hand to help the natural rubber industry smooth risks and increase returns, and better serve the green development of the industry!" Gao Ning said.