China Market Insider China's Ethylene Production Reaches a New Peak

China's ethylene production capacity will again grow strongly this year. While less investments are being made in new plants worldwide, the trend in the People's Republic is going in the opposite direction, reports PROCESS (China). More than seven additional annual tons of capacity will be added in 2021 through various significant projects, which will raise the total capacity in China to a new high of around 40 million yearly tons, writes PROCESS' sister editorial office in Beijing.

Beijing/China – A total of eight new crackers, which are expected to start production later this year, are currently under construction in China. These would have a total new capacity of 7.8 million tons per year, Argus Media has calculated. China's total ethylene production capacity would grow to 39.8 million tons per year by the end of this year. This corresponds to a growth of 23 percent compared to 2020, according to Argus Media.

Although six new ethylene crackers have already come on stream in China, even in 2020, the country continues to import large quantities of versatile feedstock for plastics production. China's communist state and party leadership wants to reduce the import share of ethylene significantly and become more "self-sufficient" because of the trade war with Washington and other geopolitical tensions, state Chinese media reports.