Thailand's Chemical Industry on Growth Curve

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Petrochemical Industry of High Importance For Thailand

The chemical industry is regarded as one of the most important business branches of the Thai economy. Especially petrochemical companies are well positioned compared to international competitors. The Thai Industry Ministry assumes that about 7 percent of the country’s petrochemical businesses work within downstream processes, that usually requires low capital expenditures.

Between 2004 and 2018 several programs of Thailand’s government for the petrochemical industry should bring public investments of around € 10 billion for the expansion of this industry. With these programs, the Thai authorities want to boost capacity expansions and the addition of new value added products to the portfolio of local manufacturers.

Currently, especially the Thai basic chemicals business depends on foreign know-how since most of the players in this field are subsidiaries of multinational corporations. Most of the feedstocks and raw materials must be imported. Swiss based engineering specialists Foster Wheeler were selected for two refinery expansion projects in Thailand.

Future Hub of Thailand's Petrochemical Industry

Although being generally seen as an attractive investment location, political instability and the interruption of several investment projects in the Map Ta Phut business area overshadowed the country’s reputation.

Meanwhile, some of these issues could be cleared. By the end of the last year, 74 of 76 postponed projects at Map Ta Phut were re-started. These projects were originally stopped for environmental and public health concers as well as process deficiencies. Map Ta Phut is expected to become the country’s most important petrochemical location. After overcoming the current investment backlog, it is expected to attract a wide range of projects from foreign and domestic companies.(Read more about Dow's additional capacities in Map Ta Phut - also BASF and Ineos plan to jointly operate production facilities at Ma Ta Phut.

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