Middle East to 'stagger' globe with new C2 - CMAI

27 March 2008 16:36  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--A “staggering” 9m tonnes/year of new ethylene capacity will start up in the Middle East during the next 12 months, equivalent to nearly two years of global demand, an industry consultant said on Thursday.

This includes two worldscale crackers in Iran, five in Saudi Arabia, one in Kuwait and one in Qatar in early 2009, Tony Potter, CMAI director for olefin studies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told the CMAI World Petrochemical Conference.

“Outside of Iran, project delays are largely a myth,” he added.

The Saudi, Kuwait and Qatari projects are on or ahead of schedule. He said there was further pressure to start up the plants before the beginning of the Ramadan fasting period on 1 September.

Potter told the audience that much of the new production will flow as derivatives to Asia because no new capacity is starting up in China this year.

“This should not lull any other regions into any sense of false security,” he adding, citing Europe is also a big regional export target.

Potter said that utilisation rates would be significantly lower by the end of the year, falling from 92% to 90%, adding that many of the new complexes would be running at high rates within a month of feedstock being introduced.

The psychological impact of these start-ups on the market needs to be assessed, he said.

“Just the prospect of new material will affect buying decisions some months ahead of physical availability and consequently ethylene and polyethylene price reductions in Q3 are highly probable,” he added.

For more on C2 visit ICIS chemical intelligence

By: Peter Taffe
+44 20 8652 3214

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