Why has China become the world's largest polypropylene producer yet still lags in high-end specialty grades?

Why has China become the world's largest polypropylene producer yet still lags in high-end specialty grades?
China's PP capacity reached roughly 49 million tonnes in 2025, nearly 40% of global supply, with another 7-8 million tonnes planned through 2026. Yet the market remains bifurcated: commodity grades face chronic oversupply and thin margins, while high-value specialties like beta-crystal PP for industrial piping and high-crystallinity grades for premium appliances still rely on imports. Domestic producers such as Sinopec Yangzi and Zhongke Refining are now pushing into these niches, but progress is incremental. The structural challenge is that capacity expansion has outpaced demand growth of only 4-5% annually, forcing producers to compete on price domestically while aggressively exporting surplus volumes—Q1 2026 exports jumped 66% year-on-year, mostly to Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America.