On June 12, the “Guidance on the Development of the Chemical New Materials Industry during the 15th Five-Year Plan Period” (hereinafter referred to as the “Guidance”) was released at the Strategic Symposium on the Development of Chemical New Materials during the 15th Five-Year Plan Period, held in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province.

According to data from the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China’s advanced chemical materials industry has experienced explosive growth, with its industrial scale and self-sufficiency reaching historic highs. Total production capacity stands at 84.5 million tons, total output at 53.5 million tons, and the industry’s value at RMB 1.2 trillion, while the overall self-sufficiency rate has reached 86.3%. China has firmly established itself as the world’s largest producer and consumer of advanced chemical materials, having built a comprehensive industrial landscape spanning ten key sectors, including high-end polyolefins, engineering plastics, high-performance fibers, and electronic chemicals.

The Guidelines stipulate that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the chemical new materials industry will maintain robust growth in both main business revenue and fixed‑asset investment. By 2030, the industry aims to achieve coordinated development between basic and high‑end products, adopt green and low‑carbon production practices, and significantly enhance the quality of economic operations. Focusing on ten major series of chemical new materials, the plan highlights seven key tasks, with the goal of ensuring an adequate supply of basic products, achieving near‑self‑sufficiency in high‑end products, expanding the scale of exports for flagship products, markedly strengthening innovation capacity, perfecting the integration of raw and auxiliary materials with production equipment, fostering synergistic collaboration among industry, academia, research, and application, and ultimately attaining parity with the United States, Europe, and Japan—and even taking a leading position in certain areas—by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan.

Bo Xinping, Secretary-General of the Chemical New Materials Special Committee of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, stated while interpreting the “Guideline”: “The year 2030 marks a pivotal milestone in China’s efforts to fully build a modern socialist country, and it will also be the decisive year for the chemical new materials industry to achieve leapfrog development. We must not only break through the 2.5 to 3 trillion yuan threshold in terms of industrial scale, but also establish a completely new framework across innovation-driven development, green and low-carbon practices, talent aggregation, and global strategic deployment.”

The Guidelines set forth specific targets for the chemical new materials industry in terms of total economic output, self-sufficiency rate, intensive development, and R&D investment.

The economy has maintained steady growth, with total main-business revenue projected to reach approximately RMB 2.5 trillion under a Brent oil price scenario of USD 60 per barrel and about RMB 3.0 trillion under a Brent oil price scenario of USD 80 per barrel by 2030.

The self-sufficiency rate has further improved, with the total production capacity of ten key product categories—including high-performance resins and electronic chemicals—reaching 110 million tons by 2030, and the overall self-sufficiency rate for new chemical materials standing at 94%.

The industry’s move toward intensive development is yielding results: by 2030, the level of park‑based and consolidated development will have further improved, with approximately 30 chemical‑new‑materials industrial parks each generating over RMB 10 billion in annual output value; a cohort of industry benchmarks will be cultivated, and a number of leading chemical‑new‑materials enterprise groups will be forged, alongside the nurturing of roughly 100 specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative SMEs. Innovation capacity will be significantly strengthened, with R&D investment accounting for at least 3% of core business revenue, and a number of national‑level R&D platforms for chemical new materials will be established. High‑end development will also deliver tangible outcomes: by 2030, efforts will aim to resolve supply bottlenecks for around 20 critical upstream feedstock materials, achieve industrialization of approximately 50 high‑end chemical‑new‑materials products that fill domestic gaps in key application areas, and upgrade the quality of roughly 50 high‑end chemical‑new‑materials products. Furthermore, green and low‑carbon progress will be accelerated: by 2030, the industry’s comprehensive energy consumption per unit of output will decline by more than 15% compared with 2025, and bio‑based materials will reduce carbon emissions by over 30% in specific application sectors.

(Source: China Chemical News, June 23, 2026)