A new report by research group Ceresana says global demand for polypropylene will increase by 3.7 percent annually between 2013 and 2021, while revenues from propylene will grow 5.3 percent each year during that time frame.
Ceresana says 85 million metric tons of propylene were processed globally in 2013, which includes its use in PP.
New propane dehydrogenation plants in the U.S. and China will see propylene production rise in North America, following a drop in output that took place between 2005 and 2013. Ceresana predicts that the highest growth rates will be seen in Eastern Europe, dominated by Russia and the Middle East, but Western Europe may suffer from pricing pressure and weak demand development.
In China, due to limited resources of crude oil, manufacturers of propylene are dependent on imports. Therefore output of non-crude oil based propylene products are to be increased and these should help see Chinese production increase by 8 percent per year, says the research group.