Demand- after growing very well for commodity plastics in China, has picked in the last two decades for engineering plastics. China is estimated to consume more than 4 million tons of the engineering plastics in 2005, reaching levels of about 7 million tons by 2010, attaining an average growth of about 9% in the next 5 years. Rapid development has broadened applications as well as consumption, making China rank first place in the world in terms of demand for engineering plastics.

While rapid economic development in China has led to a corresponding increase in the use of engineering plastics, the industry in China is still at its primary stage and suffers from low production levels, small-scale production facilities and limited varieties. Domestic production of engineering plastics is currently only 1.25 million tons, hence, like the other polymers, China has to import a huge quantity of engineering plastics. With self-sufficiency being less than 30%, China has become the largest importer of engineering plastics as users of PC, POM, mPPO and ABS rely mainly on imports. The country's import of engineering plastics has surged from 2.28 million tons in 2002 to 3.31 million tons in 2005. Imports will continue in the next 5 years, despite the increased domestic production to almost 2.75 million tons. China's net import volume of raw material resins for the five major engineering plastics (PA, PC, POM, engineering PET and PBT, mPPO) is estimated to cross 1 million tons collectively, and ABS net import is estimated to reach 2.12 million tons in 2005.

The key drivers of this growth in China is rapid expansion of China's automotive, electronic and electrical industries, with growth rates greater than 20% between 2002 and 2004. During the same period, China's GDP grew at an average annual rate of more than 8%. China is speeding up in domestic production, and the growth rate is estimated to hit 13.5% in the next 5 years. Even though the production will almost double by 2010, the gap between consumption and domestic output will still widen from 3.13 million tons in 2005 to 4.35 million tons in 2010.