Global petrochemical market demand will continue to recover this year

Petrochemical producers expect that the global petrochemical market demand will continue to recover in 2012. According to CMAI, global ethylene demand will increase by 3.9% to approximately 132 million tons in 2012, and will grow at an average annual rate of approximately 4.3% by 2016; meanwhile, global propylene demand will increase by 4% in 2012. About 83 million tons, by 2016, will grow at an average annual rate of about 4.4%.

According to the company's analysis, the average operating rate of global petrochemical plants will remain at a median of 80% in 2012, but the operating rate will start to increase at the end of the year, but for high-cost producers, the level of profits will fall. To a cyclical low.