China Plastics Network talks about the steady growth of global plastics demand

Global polyethylene capacity growth is concentrated in areas with cheap natural gas in the Middle East and North America, as well as areas with low-cost coal in China. In the next five years, North American polyethylene capacity will grow by more than one-third, to more than 27 million t/a by 2019, of which low-density polyethylene (LDPE) accounts for 35% of total capacity. The demand and export of three high-density polyethylene products such as high-density polyethylene (HDPE), linear low-density polyethylene and low-density polyethylene will increase in an all-round way.

The Middle East is now the world's largest net exporter of polyethylene. At present, capacity growth in the region has begun to slow down. The production capacity will increase by 5.4 million t/a in the next five years. By 2019, the total production capacity of polyethylene in the region will account for nearly 20% of the world.

Polypropylene: strong market demand

In Saudi Arabia, the raw material cost of propane dehydrogenation to polypropylene is basically the same as the cost of Asian naphtha. At the end of last year, Saudi producers' profits were as high as US$365/t, higher than the first three quarters of 2014. Profits have fallen since January this year, and the profits of Saudi producers fell to $300/t in February, the lowest in a year, but still have good profits. Due to strong demand in the polypropylene market, polypropylene prices in the Middle East are expected to rise in the coming months.

In Asia, mainly in China, not only polypropylene is produced by propane dehydrogenation technology, but also coal-based polypropylene projects. At present, China is the only country in the world to realize coal-based polypropylene. The new coal-based polypropylene production unit has been put into production to replace the non-competitive polypropylene producers, resulting in the reduction or discontinuation of some non-refining integrated polypropylene producers.

Polyvinyl chloride: Rapid growth in demand in the Asia Pacific region

The demand for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in the Asia-Pacific region will maintain rapid growth. In 2015, China's PVC demand will grow at a rate of 5% to 6%, and the US PVC market will grow at 2.9%.

High-priced ethylene in Asia has made naphtha-based polyvinyl chloride not compete with calcium carbide, but oil prices have fallen sharply since the fourth quarter of last year, and the prices of naphtha and ethylene raw materials have fallen, which has weakened. The cost advantage of calcium carbide method for polyvinyl chloride. According to IHS Consulting, most of China's PVC is produced in coal, while in other Asian countries, naphtha-based PVC dominates. Before the oil price plummeted, the price of ethylene in Asia was $1,450/t, and the current price was $950/t.

Jiuzhi Plastics Network