Western European market review

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Propylene production, consumption and trade balance

Demand in 2006

In 2006, West European propylene consumption was 15.56Mt, which is 190kt (1.2%) higher than in 2005. Reduced consumption in acrylonitrile, PO, OXO and "other derivatives" did not offset the very small increase in PP and cumene. This is mainly due to the strong consumption of "other derivatives".

Polypropylene's share of overall propylene consumption fell slightly from 58.7% to 58.3%.

Supply in 2006

In 2006, Western European propylene production was 15.35Mt, which is 179kt (1.15%) smaller than in 2005. This was the result of a decrease from both refinery/dehydrogenation sources and steam crackers of respectively 9 kt (0.2%) and 170 kt (1.6%). The steam cracker propylene/ethylene ratio was 50.9%.

In Eastern Europe, the total propylene production stood at 951,000 tons.

Forecast

Western European propylene capacity is forecast to grow by 0.641Mt over the next 5 years, reaching 18.5 Mt in 2011. This represents an average annual of 128 Kt/year. From this increase 0.574 Mt is expected to come from steam crackers and 0.067Mt from ex refinery.

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