Polyolefins to thrive by 1995
Five factors will shorten the [current] period of distress for global polyolefins producers, says George T. Scott, v.p. and general manager of olefins and derivatives for Chevron Chemical (Houston): lower feedstock costs, the weaker dollar, higher operating rates, higher converter capacity, and technical improvements at the high end of the market. The next two years will be tough, says Scott, but I am hopeful of a full recovery to reinvestment economics by 1995. Scott made his remarks in the keynote address last week at a technical conference in Houston sponsored by the Society of Plastics Engineers (Brookfield, IL). Of the five factors, lower feedstock costs are the most immediate, with ethylene, and especially propylene, mired in neart-term record lows. However, other market watchers point out that the upstream situation must now include cracker feedslates because more merchant polyolefin producers are integrated back to the monomer. With as little as one-quarter of polymer capacity supplied from the merchant olefin market, by some estimates, a dollars/1,000-cubic-feet number is now more important than a cents/pound number. Technical advances at the top of the market are another intriguing factor. In recent years, says Scott, improvements in catalysts and processes have improved operating efficiencies and costs for high-volume trains. The cutting edge work today, however, is for speciality grades and custom-designed molecules for specific applications. Such advances have the double benefit of bringing high margin materials into the market while not adding many new pounds to an oversupplied business.
- OSTI ID:
- 6937270
- Journal Information:
- Chemical Week; (United States), Vol. 152:8; ISSN 0009-272X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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