Ethylene is one of the most versatile and important chemical components and intermediates used for downstream chemical processing in order to obtain a wide range of consumer and industrial products. Ethylene economics and market are enormous in size and complexity. They attract and generate substantial financial resources, provide multiple jobs, and affect economic development of the whole regions and industrial sectors. Versatility and omnipresence of ethylene in chemical production and everyday life, alongside with rather even spread of its production capacities around the globe, create an illusion of market de-monopolization.
Ethylene: structure of the global production capacity by region
However, the market is dominated by large multinational players, like Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil Chemical, LyondellBasell, Sabic, Sinopec, Shell, Formosa Plastics Corp. (with its sister company Formosa Petrochemicals), Chevron Phillips Chemical Co., Ineos, Abu Dhabi Polymers Co. Ltd. – (Borouge), BASF and Nova Chemicals. These companies (with ethylene capacities exceeding 3 mln mt/y) account for about 40% of global ethylene production capacity. Their capacity growth is executed via ongoing and planned large-scale projects. Currently, there are multiple ethylene production capacity expansion projects underway. One can mention the following companies with their projects: Dow Chemicals (1.5 mln mt/y ethylene facility in Freeport, Texas to be commissioned in 2017), ExxonMobil Chemical (1.5 mln mty ethylene-producing steam cracker in Baytown, Texas to be commissioned in 2017), Chevron Phillips (1.5 mln mty ethane cracker in Cedar Bayou, Baytown, Texas to be commissioned in 2017), and Formosa Plastics (1.15 million mt/y ethylene cracker at Point Comfort, Texas to be started in 2016) and Formosa Petrochemical (a petrochemical complex in St. James Parish, Louisiana, which might become the world’s largest single-site ethylene production complex; this project will be realized in phases and take several years). The manifestation of these projects in the USA was boosted by the advent of shale gas production. The construction of ethylene facilities in other parts of the world is currently underway.
In-depth analysis of the world’s ethylene market performance at various geographical scales is provided in the topical market research study “Ethylene (ET): 2016 World Market Outlook and Forecast up to 2020”.