Demand for petrochemicals dries up elsewhere: Is India the new horizon? – 22 Mar 2016

Has the market for petrochemicals changed dramatically?

A new world study seems to think so Demand is no longer growing at the rate at which it had in the past as an ageing population in the west consume less as they grow older.

The big market was China. Its galloping double digit growth saw an insatiable appetite for chemicals and petrochemicals but that is now changing.

In China, the appetite for high selling items such as PTA, PVC and their derivatives as well as other chemicals has now gone down, so much so that incremental demand has almost disappeared. So, for the first time, chemical and petrochemical producers will have to scout for new markets and find more efficient ways of producing polymers and attendant products. The focus has to turn towards countries like India, where the per-capital consumption is low and is just revving up. Will India then see a beeline of foreign companies trying to sell their products? Will the competition heat up here as more and more companies look for fresh demand arising from the country? Only time will tell whether India will be the prospect that many believe it is.