The cost line will support the price of pesticides

In 2014, the price of major pesticide products declined, but as the country’s efforts to verify the environmental protection of pesticides continued to increase, corporate environmental protection costs would increase, and there was little room for further price declines.

As the pesticide winter reserve in 2014 was not as strong as expected, under the influence of insufficient effective demand, the prices of major pesticide products in the fourth quarter all declined. Among them, the price of glyphosate, a typical product of herbicides, rose sharply in 2014, falling from the previous 35,000 yuan / ton to the current level of 24,000 yuan / ton, a decrease of 31.43%, the price has dropped to the cost line. Affected by this, at the end of October 2014, the profit margin of enterprises above designated size in the pesticide industry decreased by 0.19 percentage points year-on-year, and some of the smaller plants were already in production. In addition, the price of pesticide chlorpyrifos fell from 40,000 yuan/ton at the end of October to 38,000 yuan/ton after experiencing a short-term increase, which was a drop of 5%. Imidacloprid was also affected by the unfavorable winter storage, and the price remained at 103,000 yuan/ton. The cost line.

With the stable demand for pesticides at home and abroad, it is unlikely that the price of pesticides will fall further due to rising costs. In the first batch of special environmental protection inspections conducted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection for companies producing glyphosate (including double-glyphosate), only four of more than 10 companies passed inspections. At present, the Ministry of Environmental Protection is conducting the second batch of inspections. Since only the first batch of four companies have passed, most mainstream manufacturers hope to pass the second time. Every enterprise needs to invest nearly 100 million yuan to improve the "three wastes" and environmental protection. Treatment facilities will increase the cost of glyphosate by about RMB 2,000/ton. In addition, in September 2014, one of the top 100 national pesticide companies in Shandong suffered a detonation due to manual operation failures. Although no casualties were caused, it caused economic losses of 2 million yuan. It is expected that the input of pesticide companies in safe production will also increase. In recent years, the prices of coal and petrochemical products, which are the main raw materials for pesticide production, have fallen, which has reduced the production costs of pesticide companies. However, future fluctuations in resource prices will continue to have an important impact on the profits of industry enterprises. In addition, China's exports of pesticide products account for a relatively high level, and fluctuations in exchange rates will also affect the production costs of industrial enterprises.

At present, the prices of pesticide products such as glyphosate and imidacloprid are close to the cost line. With the further increase in environmental protection and safe production costs, there is little room for further decline in the price of pesticide products. However, under the background that the price of traditional chemical pesticides has once again become weak, China's pesticide market also presents two new development trends.

On one hand, with the development of the traditional chemical pesticide industry becoming more saturated, biological pesticides will become a new development trend. At present, the dosage forms of biological pesticide products in China have been developing from instability to stability. There are currently more than 260 biological pesticide production enterprises in China, accounting for approximately 13% of the country's pesticide production enterprises. In 2013, the national biological pesticide production was nearly 130,000 tons, which is equivalent to the chemical industry. With 4% of pesticide production, there is still room for development.

On the other hand, agrochemical companies will enhance terminal services through plant protection companies. At present, the residue of harmful substances in China's agricultural products (000061) has exceeded the standard, which is directly related to farmers' non-compliance with product descriptions and excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Therefore, leading agrochemical enterprises have begun to explore the establishment of specialized plant protection technology service companies and organize professional team integration. Provide farmers with fertilizer and spraying services to ensure scientific and rational application of pesticides. At the same time, the transfer of rural land also provides more convenient conditions for professional plant protection companies to provide comprehensive services.