Chemical Industry News
China expects to import more polyolefins
Thursday, 17, June 2010
China’s PE production capacity will likely grow more than 5 percent a year between 2011 and 2016, but rapidly rising domestic demand means the country will continue to import significant amounts of polyethylene and other polyolefins, according to Chinese analysts.The country’s PE capacity, for example is expected to hit 13.5 million metric tons in 2016, giving it about 14.6 percent of world capacity. That’s more than double its production in 2006.
Even with that big jump in domestic production, though, overseas resin will still play a significant role in the country, said Sun Wei Shan, vice general secretary of the Beijing-based China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association.China is projected to need about 5.4 million metric tons of PE imports in 2016, roughly the same volume as today, he said.That figure will represent a much smaller percentage of the total, however, making up only about 30 percent of demand, down from about half today, he said.Sun and other Chinese analysts spoke at the Flexpo 2010 conference June 9-11 in Beijing.