APIC ’09: Taiwan’s 2009 plastics demand to fall 6.9%

15 May 2009 09:32  [Source: ICIS news]

SEOUL (ICIS news)--Taiwan’s plastics demand is expected to shrink by up to 6.9% this year due to the global economic downturn, the Petrochemical Industry Association of Taiwan (PIAT) said in a report on Friday.

In a presentation at the 9th Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference in Seoul, the PIAT said demand for polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) was estimated to fall by 6.9%, 4.8% and 6.2% to 514,000 tonnes, 158,000 tonnes and 149,000 tonnes, respectively.

Taiwan’s PP, PS and ABS 2009 exports were estimated to increase by 3%, 4.7% and 6.5%, to 712,000 tonnes, 630,000 tonnes and 1.155m tonnes, respectively, due to declining domestic demand, it said.

PIAT said Taiwan’s polyvinyl chloride (PVC) demand fell to 607,584 tonnes last year, down 16.3% from the previous year, as consumption in the key housing and automobile application sectors fell sharply due to the global financial crisis.

“We believe it’ll take time for PVC demand to recover in various applications,” the association said.

However, PIAT said it believed that Taiwan’s demand for virgin grade polyethylene (PE) would increase this year due to tight supply of recycled PE.

Plastics end-users were expected to choose virgin grade PE over recycled material as the prices of virgin grade PE were lower as compared to the prices in 2008, it said.

Taiwan’s total demand for low density PE (LDPE), linear LDPE and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) was forecast to increase to 380,000 tonnes this year, up 3% from last year, it said.

Taiwan’s high density PE (HDPE) demand was estimated to rise to 353,000 tonnes this year, an increase of 7.7% over last year, PIAT added.

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By: Chow Bee Lin
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