Unrivalled Insight into the Chinese Petrochemical Markets

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Nov 19, 2014, 09:32 ET

SINGAPORE, November 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

ICIS, the leading provider of global market intelligence and expert on China's domestic petrochemicals industry, has launched a series of detailed annual studies covering key chemical markets in the country such as plastics, rubber, alcohols and other downstream sectors.

"As the largest petrochemicals importer in Asia, China is attractive to global exporters. However, the aggressive pace of its domestic production capacity expansion is prompting uncertainty among global market players operating in or trying to enter the Chinese markets," says Chris Qi, Information Director from ICIS China.

The ongoing supply and demand dynamics in the Chinese petrochemicals can have a significant impact on the trading patterns between China and its global partners. ICIS's annual studies are able to give valuable insight on the local developments for key petrochemicals that China has been actively trading with international players.

Methanol

The methanol industry was dampened by the slowdown in China's economic growth and the government's control on domestic credit loan, which has been expanding in the past five years. Growth rate of domestic demand for methanol slowed down to 5.5% in first-half 2014, according to ICIS. The growth rate for all of 2014 is expected to stand at 11.5%, being the lowest since 2010. Read more…

Ethylene Glycol (EG)

PET is a major derivative of EG, accounting for 94% of the total consumption, while unsaturated polyester resins (UPR), antifreeze and glyoxal take up the remaining 6%. Domestic UPR capacities total 3.6m tonnes in 2014, up by less than 6% compared with 2013, according to ICIS. However, the operating rates are low and the output is around 1.9m tonnes, almost flat from a year ago. Glycol is a major component in the production of UPR. The ratio of MEG consumption varies in different UPR grades, at 6-8% for low-end UPR grades and at 10-12% for high-end grades. Increasingly, the low- and mid-end UPR grades are becoming a staple in China. Read more…

Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR)

China's rubber and derivative markets have continued to expand in 2014, but the performance has been lacklustre. Prices of major rubber varieties remained low in the first eight months of the year. Both the domestic and export markets were under growing inventory pressure. China's vehicle production and sales increased in the first eight months of 2014, but the growth slowed down significantly compared with 2013. Read more…

Polybutadiene Rubber (PBR)

In recent years, domestic PBR supply increased while imports gradually decreased along with capacity expansion in China. The import volumes were largely stable during 2012-2013, but the situation changed in 2014. Some downstream producers were more inclined to purchase domestic cargoes in the absence of an import price advantage. Moreover, the US government has launched anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations on tyres originating from China. The orders for tyres from the US decreased as a result, which adversely affected the PBR imports by the trade mode of processing with imported materials. As such, ICIS China expects China's PBR import volume in 2014 to be lower than 2013. Read more…

Styrene

Domestic downstream demand in 2014 is expected to total 8.68m tonnes, up by 96,600 tonnes or 1.1% year on year. ICIS China predicts that domestic downstream demand will increase by only 1.1% in 2014. Downstream expandable polystyrene (EPS), polystyrene (PS) and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) industries are the main consumers of styrene monomer (SM) in China. Of those, the EPS sector accounts for 34.8% of the total consumption, ranking first (despite a slight decrease compared with 36% in 2013), followed by PS and ABS/AS, which account for 24.6% and 18.9% respectively. Consumption from the unsaturated polyester resins (UPR) and styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) sectors represents less than 10% of the total. Read more…

Acrylate Esters

The capacity expansion of butyl acrylate in 2014 is expected to be 860,000 tonnes, increasing the total capacity in China to about 2.01m tonnes. In line with this growth, the additional capacity of acrylic acid is expected to be 990,000 tonnes in 2014, driving the total number up to 2.99m tonnes. Read more…

Benzene

As the new capacities such as Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical and Pengzhou Petrochemical come on stream, the domestic supply of benzene keeps increasing in 2014. However, some new capacities in the downstream industry have postponed their start-up dates, leading to an oversupply situation. In July 2014, China benzene imports amounted to 375,000 tonnes, 9.57% less than the import level in the same period last year, showing a reduction of import reliance. Sinopec still dominates the China benzene market, while the international market primarily influences market sentiment. Read more…

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS)

Import cargoes still play an important role in the domestic ABS market. Most import ABS cargoes are processed and then re-exported because export producers are strict with the quality of their products, however, the quality and performance of domestic ABS specialties are not as good as those of import cargoes. Read more…

About ICIS

ICIS is the world's largest petrochemical market information provider and has fast-growing energy and fertilizer divisions. Our aim is to give companies in global commodities markets a competitive advantage by delivering trusted pricing data, high-value news, analysis and independent consulting, enabling our customers to make better-informed trading and planning decisions. We have more than 30 years' experience in providing pricing information, news, analysis and consulting to buyers, sellers and analysts.

With a global staff of more than 800, ICIS has employees based in Houston, Washington, New York, London, Montpellier, Dusseldorf, Karlsruhe, Milan, Mumbai, Singapore, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Yantai, Tokyo and Perth. ICIS is a division of Reed Business Information, part of Reed Elsevier Plc.

About Reed Business Information

At Reed Business Information we provide information and online data services to business professionals worldwide. Customers have access to our high-value industry data, analytics, information and tools. Our strong global brands hold market-leading positions across a wide range of industry sectors including banking, petrochemicals and aviation where we help customers make key strategic decisions every day. RBI is part of Reed Elsevier, a leading global provider of data, information and solutions for professional customers.

SOURCE ICIS