Aided by stimulus package, ethylene capacity estimated to grow 82% over next 3 years

01-Jun-09

Aided by the fiscal stimulus package committed to the petrochemical sector, China’s new ethylene capacity is estimated to grow by 82% to 17.84 mln tpa over the next three years. 5 new crackers and 6 cracker expansions projects that would be completed until 2011 will contribute to capacity augmentation. Most of these projects are being carried out by subsidiaries of state-owned refiners Sinopec and PetroChina. About 45% of the planned capacity totaling to 3.56 mln tons will come onstream this year, starting off with the new 800,000 tpa Fujian Refining & Petrochemical (FREP) cracker of Sinopec unit to be launched in July along with Shanghai Secco Petrochemical’s 300,000 tpa cracker augmentation. PetroChina unit Dushanzi Petrochemical is also simultaneously expected to boost its ethylene capacity to 1.22 mln tpa along with Huajin Chemical Industrial Group’s cracker expansion by 460,000 tpa to 620,000 tpa. Tianjin Petrochemical, another subsidiary of Sinopec, would have a major ethylene capacity increase of 1 mln tpa by November and December to 1.2 mln tpa. In 2010, ethylene capacity will be hiked by an additional 1.3 mln tpa with the launch of Sinopec subsidiary Zhenhai Oil Refining and Chemical (ZRCC)’s 1 mln tpa cracker and Baotou Shenhua Coal Chemical’s new 300,000 tpa ethylene plant. In 2011, an additional 3 mln tpa of ethylene capacity will come on stream as PetroChina unit Fushun Petrochemical will boost its cracker capacity by 800,000 tpa and Sichuan Petrochemical plans a 800,000 tpa cracker by the end of that year. Sinopec’s Wuhan Petrochemical will further augment China’s ethylene capacity by 800,000 tpa while PetroChina unit Daqing Petrochemical will doubled its ethylene capacity to 1.2 mln tpa by the end of 2011.