World petrochemical outlook: Is the current weakness a trend or an aberration?

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:442775

Baggett, P E ^[1]

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1. CMAI, Houston, TX (United States)

While the focus of this conference is methanol, a review of the general petrochemical industry might be enlightening and valuable to understanding the methanol market. Methanol is certainly a commodity with similarities to hydrocarbons such as gasoline and similarities to base petrochemicals such as ethylene. Methanol stands with one foot in the fuels market via MTBE and the other in the chemicals business for acetic acid and formaldehyde, among many others. Is the world petrochemical market moving into a new trend of weak prices and profits or is the strong growth seen in 1994 and 1995 continuing and the current situation an aberration? In order to determine whether the current market is a trend or aberration, the author looks at issues that he believes caused the current situation and then considers where the world`s economies and petrochemical markets are heading. The issues discussed are: unusually high price increase in a short period; inventory increase/decrease because of price changes; reduction in demand caused by high prices; increase in capacity caused by high prices; changes in growth of world economies; and political/economic issues in China.

• OSTI ID: 442775
• Report Number(s): CONF-951266--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

10 SYNTHETIC FUELS
CAPACITY
ECONOMICS
FORECASTING
METHANOL
PETROCHEMICALS
POLITICAL ASPECTS
PRICES
SUPPLY AND DEMAND
SYNTHETIC FUELS INDUSTRY