21 Oct
In 2020, the world is thrown into a new normal with a sudden outbreak of COVID-19, and handful of other issues arising during the year. Also, to cope with changes, CCFEI and Tecnon OrbiChem, with the support from Yufeng Chemical Fiber Machinery, held the 17th China International Polyester & Intermediates Forum online, making it the first live-stream worldwide even of the industry in China.
Our attempt has turned out successful, with more than 600 domestic participants registered ahead of the event, and the count of views maximized at more than 4,000 times during the course, among which two third of viewers had kept watching on. Many participants even watched on their mobile devices on their way home, as the program was extended after 17:00 of local time.
Meanwhile, more than one hundred overseas participants, from fifteen countries and regions including India, Turkey, Japan, Chinese Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, UK, Germany, the US, Italia, Switzerland, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong, also joined us online. While the pandemic held people apart, the web joined us together.

13：30—The first-day session opened with He Weihui, Senior Analyst of CCFEI as the chairwomen. Charles Fryer from Tecnon OrbiChem attended the opening speech: With the plaguing pandemic all around the world and lockdowns being taken out again, world economy growth is hardly hit, and is expected to get curbed in the next decade. We are now pushing through the toughest economic woe seen in more than a century. On the other hand, while the pandemic hurt aviation and leisure related industries badly, demand for polyester will get sustained from daily consumer goods.

13：45—Zhang Ge, Deputy General Manager of CITIC Futures brought us the first speech. Based on her analysis of capital logic under macro context, high volatility and asset allocation, she suggested that cost performance, stock will be better than commodity while the latter will be better than bond in Q4; As for asset allocation, the proportion should be mainly focused on bond market in the first half of Q4, while in the second half of Q4, equity market will be emphasized. She also answered questions put by participants about exchange rates.

14：10—Clive Gibson, Vice President of Nexant focused on crude oil in his speech. He estimate the GDP loss in 2020 at around 4-5%. Referring to the energy sector, he stated that with crude oil recovering from the slump seen in Feb-Apr, and refining rate at a 30-year-low, there is great uncertainty with crude oil price trend, mainly depending on long-term fiscal plan of oil producing countries.

14：55—Ma Jianguo from ECO Inner Mongolia Coal Chemical Technology presented Prospect and Risk Analysis on MEG Industry under Current Political and Economic Circumstances, in which he pointed out that domestic coal-based MEG industry faced difficulties including expanding too fast, high costs and imbalanced market fundamental, less rationalized market orientation and pricing mode. To solve these problems, he asserted, while government support is necessary, it would mainly depend on optimization of the industry –switching to other products or with technology breakthrough. He also answered questions about full MEG cost and import dependency.

15：35—The problem of overcapacity is more prominent with PTA compared with MEG. Qin Hao, Director of Business Development Center, FJPEC (Zhangzhou) talks about PTA market in Short Term and Long Term, in which he analyzed trading mode, market trends and layout changes of PTA industry, providing suggestions about where will the market go after huge new capacities come on stream, and also answered questions about PTA market prospect.

16：20——After the coffee break, speakers from CCFEI contributes speeches under the title of China Polyester Industry Chain in the Post-epidemic Era. Senior Analyst Cao Wenting, focusing on feedstock markets against the backdrop of huge expansion during the year, made a review of Q1-Q3, which borne three new characteristics and is facing three major new problems. She also advised some trading modes which might be practicable.

Senior Analyst Lin Jiayi presented analysis of changes of polyester demand structure during the year, taking a review of polyester performance year-to-date, telling changes about BGPET, PSF and PFY in the year, and depicted a perspective about the market.