The acrylonitrile industry has become stagnant due to dormant capacity additions, which gives the enormous opportunity for foreign companies to exploit the untapped acrylonitrile market due to a huge domestic deficit in production. Propylene, the primary feedstock for acrylonitrile, influences acrylonitrile market conditions by making the production environment either harsh or lucrative.

Reliance is the sole producer of acrylonitrile in India with a capacity of 41 KTA per annum. Domestic production is not sufficient to meet the demand even though production rates have been decent. Due to a heavy mismatch in the demand and supply of acrylonitrile, the country depends heavily on imports to run industries such as ABS and SAN that use acrylonitrile as feedstock.

The manufacture of acrylic fiber is the most important use of acrylonitrile in the Asia-Pacific region, which is the largest producer of fibers and textiles in the world. Acrylic fiber is used to make sweater yarns and other clothing products such as socks, scarves and thermal inner wear. The demand for acrylic fiber, therefore, heightens with the onset of winters and has a high demand throughout winters in India as the timing of the season is scattered across the country. The demand for upholstery and carpets also fuel the demand which witnesses a significant increase compared to the summer months.

On the Global front, China is the largest consumer of acrylonitrile and is swiftly adding substantial capacity to meet the growing demand of the country. Having realized that the market now lies in Asia and the Middle East, European firms are scaling down their operations in Europe to set up plants in China and Asia-Pacific. Over the next five years, acrylonitrile demand is expected to increase at an average annual rate of 3.9%. Overall, 55% of the global demand growth is expected to come from Northeast Asia, followed by the Middle East and North America. Acrylamide and ABS resin applications will account for most acrylonitrile demand growth through 2021.

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