China to dominate polyethylene capacity additions in Asia through 2027

China is set to register the highest polyethylene capacity additions in Asia, contributing about 41% of the region’s capacity additions by 2027, says Global Data, the and analytics company.

GlobalData’s latest report, Polyethylene Industry Installed Capacity and Capital Expenditure (CapEx) Forecast by Region and Countries including details of All Active Plants, Planned and Announced Projects, 2023-2027, reveals that China leads with the largest polyethylene capacity additions in Asia, by gaining a capacity of 10.14 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from 31 planned and five announced projects.

Nivedita Roy, Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Increased demand for polyethylene in the food and beverage industry is the primary factory for a rise in demand for polyethylene in China.”  

In China, the main capacity addition would be from five planned and announced projects, with a capacity of 0.5 mtpa each.

The projects include Exxon Mobil Corporation Huizhou Polyethylene Plant, Oriental Energy Maoming Polyethylene Plant 1, Oriental Energy Maoming Polyethylene Plant 2, Sinopec and Ineos JV Tianjin Polyethylene Plant 1 and Tangshan Xu Yang Petrochemical Tangshan Polyethylene Plant 1.

Ineos JV Tianjin Polyethylene Plant 1 and Tangshan Xu Yang Petrochemical Tangshan Polyethylene Plant 1 are expected to come online in 2023. Exxon Mobil Corporation Huizhou Polyethylene Plant is anticipated to become operational in 2024, while the remaining two projects are expected to start production of polyethylene in 2025.