Performance of 6 listed polyester companies in H1 2025

In August, listed companies have successively released their semi-annual reports to present their performance to shareholders and investors. The key indicators of the six leading listed companies in the polyester industry-Tongkun, Xinfengming, Hengyi, Rongsheng, Hengli and Shenghong-were as follows:

In terms of operating income, except for Xinfengming, which saw new capacity put into operation during the reporting period and thus contributed to its income, the operating incomes of other enterprises all decreased significantly. The main reason lied in the price decline across the industrial chain. In the first half of 2025, the average prices of WTI crude oil and Brent crude oil fell by 13% and 14% respectively; PTA and MEG, the direct raw materials for polyester, dropped by 16% and 1% respectively, while PX declined by 17%. As for major polyester products, the prices of PET fiber chips, PET bottle chips, PSF, and PFY (150D POY, FDY, and DTY) decreased by 13%, 14%, 9%, 10%, 12%, and 9% respectively.

In terms of profitability, the net profits of Tongkun and Xinfengming, which focus on filament production, improved. However, the net profits of enterprises with a relatively high proportion of refining & chemical business or upstream business declined (except for Shenghong, which was affected by special factors last year). From the perspective of industrial profitability data, among upstream raw materials, only the processing spread of MEG improved, while the processing spread of PX and PTA both decreased. Among polyester products: The profitability of polyester POY was much better than that in the same period last year; The profitability of coarse-denier FDY narrowed, and fine-denier FDY has shifted from profitable to significantly loss-making; PSF turned losses into profits and became the second most profitable variety among polyester products; Both PET bottle chips and PET fiber chips were in a state of loss. Among them, the loss of PET bottle chips expanded significantly, making it a variety with relatively weak profitability among polyester products-this was related to the fact that PET bottle chips were still in a period of high capacity investment. PFY and PSF were both in a cycle of low-speed capacity expansion. Therefore, in terms of basic earnings per share and return on net assets, Tongkun and Xinfengming increased year-on-year.

In terms of asset-liability ratio, enterprises in the upstream sector with heavy capacity generally had a relatively higher absolute liability ratio, while Tongkun and Xinfengming had a relatively lower one. From a year-on-year perspective, most enterprises have seen a decline in their asset-liability ratios, indicating a certain improvement in their debt levels.

In terms of inventory turnover rate, most enterprises experienced a decrease in inventory turnover days, showing improvement in inventory management. Looking at the semi-annual inventory changes of PFY, compared with 2024, the equity inventory of POY and DTY (from large enterprises) both decreased to a certain extent in 2025, with POY seeing a more notable drop. However, the inventory of FDY increased. Due to the relatively lower proportion of FDY production capacity, the overall equity inventory of POY and FDY decreased slightly when comprehensively compared.

From the perspective of PFY sector at present, the industry is still in a period of low-speed growth of new capacity. The structural differentiation on the demand side has led to better performance in inventory, cash flow and other aspects for POY than for FDY. Comprehensively, the profitability of PFY is in a cycle of gradual improvement.