'Uncertainty' looms over European petrochemical industry

Times have chang.

The economic situation is not optimistic

For chemical companies, the sluggish macro economy has dealt a serious blow to business confidence, and the cautiously optimistic expectations at the beginning of the year have turned to pessimi.

Against this backdrop, the chemical industry performed poor.

Global trade frictions are also affecting Euro.

However, despite market uncertainty, the profitability of European olefins plants has so far been go.

Plant shutdowns and production drop

From September to October, the planned shutdown of a series of crackers in Europe for maintenance, coupled with the unplanned shutdown of multiple units, exacerbated the decline in European olefin production, which intensified the bearish sentiment in the mark.

IHS Markit's monthly Europe/Middle East Light Olefins report said the planned overhaul would bring total ethylene production in Europe in September close to the record monthly low reached in November 200 Among them, crackers in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have an 8-week shutdown period for maintenance, and unplanned shutdowns of ethylene crackers in Belgium and Portugal have also affected producti.

For propylene, in addition to the outage of crackers, the shutdown of some refineries in Europe also caused production loss.

Olefin derivatives are also not optimist.

In the aromatics product market, demand has weakened due to recessions in industries such as the automotive industry and constructi.

Project revenue prospects are unclear

Despite sluggish sentiment in the European petrochemical industry, several major olefin projects in the region continue to progress on schedule, especially those using light cracking feedstocks, including Borealis and INEOS' propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant in Antwerp, Belgium, and INEOS' new ethane cracker at the same locati.

In addition, Poland's Grupa Azoty is also promoting the construction of its 400,000-ton/year PDH plant in Police, Poland, which will also use UOP's Oleflex technolo.

According to the IHS Markit Europe/Middle East Light Olefins Market Report, the short-term outlook for the European petrochemical market may be bright.