New petchem capacities continue to loom on horizon for 2020 and afterwards – Petchem capacities - Arhive

Many petrochemical producers in several countries including China, India, Iran and the US are preparing for capacity expansions or imminent start-up of their new plants in the 2017-2018 period, which are partly mentioned in detail in previous ChemOrbis Plastics News PP, PE capacity additions across globe in 2017 and 2018 .

Although the expected new capacities have already caused some oversupply concerns across the globe , plans for new projects do not seem to lose momentum for the years between 2020 and 2025.

First and foremost, Austria’s Borealis and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) are working on big-scale expansion plans in the United Arab Emirates for the Borouge 4 project to increase their petrochemical production capacity to 11.4 million tons/year from the current 4.5 million tons/year until 2025. The companies will also add a new PP to the existing Borouge 3 complex.

In Asia, Indonesia’s Chandra Asri also awarded a contract for an expansion and debottlenecking of its naphtha-fed steam cracker at Cilegon and downstream derivative plants over 2019-2025. In addition, Philippines’ JG Summit Olefins Corp. (JGSOC), subsidiary of JG Summit Holding is also mulling over an expansion of its naphtha cracker, to be operational in 2021.

In the USA, Borealis, Nova Chemical and Total Petrochemicals and Refining USA signed a deal in March to construct a large scale cracker in Port Arthur, Texas and a 625,000 tons/year PE plant in Bayport. The ethylene cracker and PE plant are expected to be launched by 2020-2021.

Apart from the plans that were already signed, there are several projects in early planning stages.

Russia’s Nizhnekamskneftekhim is in plans to build a naphtha cracker complex in the Republic of Tatarstan by 2022. The cracker is set to produce other products such as PE, PP and PS in addition to ethylene.

In Turkey, the country’s Wealth Fund announced that they are close to signing a deal for the construction of a new generation petrochemical facility together with one of the world-leading wealth funds. Although the details of this deal including the location and production range of the plant to be built are yet to be revealed, rumor has it that this can be built in corporation with an investing group with a Singaporean partner.

Egypt has also unveiled its intentions recently to build a new petrochemical complex in Suez with an investment value of more than $4 billion in collaboration with the country’s Ministry of Public Business Sector and Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM) as well as refineries affiliated to the petroleum sector.

You can always track the most updated status of existing plants and new capacity additions for polymers and monomers across the globe at a quick glance by visiting ChemOrbis Production News (For members only) .