China’s major petrochemical July output declines on weaker demand

22 August 2012 06:23  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--China’s output of major petrochemical products has shown a large decline in July because of the weaker demand and slower economy of the country, industry sources said on Wednesday.

The country’s naphtha output decreased by 8.6% year on year to 2.17m tonnes in July, while its total output in the first seven months of the year declined by 1.6% year on year to 17m tonnes, the data showed.

Ethylene output declined by 6.7% year on year to 1.20m tonnes in July, while its total output in January-July dropped by 3.8% to 8.78m tonnes compared with the same period a year earlier, according to data from China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF).

China’s polyethylene (PE) output dropped by 6.4% year on year to 813,000 tonnes in July, while its total output in January-July fell by 3.8% to 5.76m tonnes compared with the same period a year earlier.

Benzene output decreased by 6.4% year on year to 497,000 tonnes in July, while its total output in January-July fell by 0.4% to 3.68m tonnes compared with the same period a year earlier.

China’s crude oil output in July, however, increased by 1.4% year on year to 17m tonnes in July and its total output in January-July rose by 1.7% year on year to 118m tonnes.

Prices for 65 products covered by ICIS Chemease, an ICIS Service in China, showed a mixed trend in the third week of August. Prices were higher for 16 products, stable for 33 products and lower for 16 products, according to data from Chemease.

Bulk soft-foam polypropylene glycol (PPG) showed the largest price increase of 10% while polymer methyl di-p-phenylene isocyanate (MDI) showed an increase of 7%. Phthalic anhydride (PA) and toluene di-isocyanate (TDI) both increased by 3% each, according to data from Chemease.

Butadiene prices saw the largest decrease of 13%, while prices for oil-extended styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and butadiene rubber (BR)-9000 fell by 8% and 7% respectively.

China’s petrochemical output:

Product	July 2012		Jan-July2012
	Output (‘000	% change*YOY	Output (‘000 tonnes)	% change*YOY
	tonnes)
Crude	17,026	1.4	117,691	1.7
Crude processing	37,604	1.1	266,497	1.6
Natural Gas (billion cbm)	8.26	1.0	61.8	5.6
Gasoline	7,442	10.1	50,083	8.0
Diesel	13,877	-0.4	98,769	1.6
Naphtha	2,167	-8.6	16,832	-1.6
Ethylene	1,198	-6.7	8,780	-3.8
Benzene	497	-6.4	3,683	-0.4
PE	813	-6.4	5,758	-3.8
PP	855	6.0	6,358	11.4
Methanol	1,971	15.4	15,098	17.0
Acetic acid	316	-11.3	2,485	6.2
PVC	1,082	-1.9	7,786	3.7
Polyester	913	-6.7	6,586	4.8
Polysilicon	10	14.5	82.1	21.2
Fertilizer	6,357	8.5	43,256	11.5

Source: CPCIF

Read John Richardson and Malini Hariharan’s blog – Asian Chemical Connections

By: Dolly Wu
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