Global near-term petrochem demand firm - NOVA

TORONTO (ICIS news)--Canada’s NOVA Chemicals expects demand for petrochemicals to remain strong through 2009, chief executive Jeff Lipton told an investor conference on Thursday.

An analyst attending the conference had asked Lipton for his views on a forecast of a potential cyclical downturn in the petrochemicals industry around 2009.

“Demand is going to be on the high side of expectations and supply is going to be lower than expected … we believe that we are going to see very strong market conditions for the foreseeable future,” he said.

Global gross domestic product (GDP) growth and demand for petrochemicals and plastics would continue to be strong, Lipton said.

In the high-growth economies of India and China, the demand for polyethylene (PE) in food packaging, for example, was far outstripping GDP growth, Lipton said.

Lipton said most bets for new petrochemical production were on the low-cost Middle East region, and projects there were moving much slower than expected.