A veteran polyester leader dating back to 1980 now stands at the brink of delisting. Sanfangxiang (*ST Sanfang) received a disclaimed audit opinion and an adverse internal control opinion for its 2025 annual report, triggering dual delisting risk warnings. Its controlling shareholder's shares are subject to judicial auction, and overdue guaranteed debts exceed 500 million yuan. This is not an isolated case but a concentrated eruption of supply-demand mismatch and intensifying competition in the polyester industry.
Background
Sanfangxiang, based in Jiangyin, Jiangsu, was listed on the A-share market in 2003, primarily engaged in chemical fiber manufacturing. In 2020, it acquired Hailun Chemical in a 'snake-swallowing-elephant' move, shifting its main business to bottle-grade polyester chips and PTA. Profits grew in the first two years after acquisition, reaching 630 million yuan in 2021 and 818 million yuan in 2022. However, it suffered losses for three consecutive years from 2023, accumulating a total loss of 1.628 billion yuan, with a loss of 885 million yuan in 2025 alone.
The root cause lies in overcapacity in the polyester bottle chip industry. From 2023 to 2024, domestic capacity was released intensively, exceeding 20 million tons per year, while demand was only about 12 million tons. The sharp supply-demand contradiction led to shrinking product price spreads. As the second-largest player in the industry, Sanfangxiang's large-scale expansion exacerbated profit declines. Meanwhile, the peak of PTA capacity growth and the entry of multiple polyester giants plunged the industry into extreme competition, with profits highly correlated with the PTA cycle.
Industry Impact
Sanfangxiang's industrial chain layout is too narrow, covering only the PTA-to-polyester bottle chip segment, with core raw material PX heavily reliant on external purchases, resulting in weak cost control. In 2025, its trading business revenue fell 59.97% year-on-year to 1.713 billion yuan. More severe is the debt risk: overdue guaranteed debts total 522 million yuan, accounting for 10.82% of net assets; related-party receivables amount to 3.561 billion yuan, with only 107 million yuan in provision for bad debts; the controlling shareholder's shares are frozen, and actual control may change.
However, a turnaround comes from the national anti-involution policy. In the second half of 2025, relevant authorities held a symposium with leading PTA and bottle chip enterprises, seen as a key measure to prevent and resolve involution-style competition. In the first quarter of 2026, Sanfangxiang achieved a net profit of 32.7409 million yuan, turning profitable quarter-on-quarter. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz triggered a rebound in polyester chain product prices, improving profit margins, and the company's stock price temporarily escaped the 1 yuan delisting warning line.
Yet risks persist. On June 26, Lianhe Credit downgraded Sanfangxiang's long-term credit rating to A- with a negative outlook; the controlling shareholder's share auction was suspended due to execution objections, but the sword of Damocles remains. Whether the anti-involution policy will sustain its effect depends on the pace of capacity reduction and downstream demand recovery.