A veteran polyester bottle chip leader is teetering on the brink of delisting. Sanfangxiang, a Jiangyin-based company founded in 1980, has been slapped with a double delisting risk warning after its 2025 annual report received a 'disclaimer of opinion' and an 'internal control adverse opinion'. More alarmingly, its controlling shareholder's shares have been judicially frozen, putting actual control at risk of changing hands at any moment.
The Harsh Reality of Overcapacity
Sanfangxiang's predicament is not an isolated case but a microcosm of the 'involution' plaguing the entire polyester bottle chip industry. Industry data shows that from 2023 to 2024, domestic polyester bottle chip capacity was unleashed in a concentrated wave, with total capacity exceeding 20 million tons per year, while downstream demand remained stuck at around 12 million tons per year. The severe supply-demand mismatch has caused product spreads to narrow continuously, squeezing corporate profits to freezing point.
As the industry's second-largest player, Sanfangxiang embarked on aggressive expansion after acquiring Hailun Chemical, betting on scale to capture market share. In 2020, the company, with a market cap of just 3.4 billion yuan, swallowed Hailun Chemical in a 7.35 billion yuan 'snake-eats-elephant' deal, shifting its main business from textile printing and dyeing to bottle-grade polyester chips and PTA. In the first two years after the acquisition, profits did grow—reaching 630 million yuan in 2021 and 818 million yuan in 2022. But the good times didn't last. From 2023 to 2025, the company posted three consecutive years of losses, with total accumulated losses hitting 1.628 billion yuan. In 2025 alone, it lost 885 million yuan, with the loss scale expanding year-on-year.
Chain Weaknesses and Debt Perils
Another fatal flaw is Sanfangxiang's overly narrow industrial chain layout. The company covers only the segment from PTA to polyester bottle chips, relying heavily on external purchases for its core raw material, PX. This means that whenever upstream PX prices rise, the company's cost control capabilities are stretched thin, and its profit margins are severely compressed. In 2025, its trading business revenue plummeted by 59.97% year-on-year to just 1.713 billion yuan.
Debt risks are equally alarming. As of the latest announcement, Sanfangxiang's cumulative overdue debts from guarantees provided to subsidiaries have reached 522 million yuan, accounting for 10.82% of its latest audited net assets. Even more troublesome is the company's accounts receivable from related parties, which stand at a staggering 3.561 billion yuan, while accumulated bad debt provisions are only 107 million yuan. Auditors have explicitly stated that they cannot obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence regarding the recoverability of these amounts. Furthermore, the controlling shareholder's shares are under judicial freeze; if they are subsequently disposed of, the company's actual control could change.
A Glimmer of Hope from Anti-Involution Policies
Industry distress has already caught the attention of the national government. In the second half of 2025, relevant state authorities convened a symposium with leading PTA and bottle chip companies to discuss industry operations and progress on projects under construction. Against the backdrop of supply-demand mismatches and razor-thin profits, the meeting was widely seen within the industry as a key move to prevent and resolve 'involution-style' competition and promote stable industry operations.
The effects of policy intervention are beginning to show. In the first quarter of 2026, Sanfangxiang posted a net profit of 32.7409 million yuan, returning to profitability year-on-year. At the same time, driven by geopolitical events such as the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, prices along the polyester industry chain have rebounded significantly, and profit margins have improved. The company's stock price has also temporarily moved away from the 1-yuan delisting warning line.