Europe polyolefins market to grow by 1% annually to 2025 – executive

VIENNA (ICIS)–The European polyolefins market is expected to grow by around 1% per year until 2025, according to Anton Wolfsberger, marketing manager for energy and infrastructure at Borealis, speaking at the 6th ICIS World Polyolefins Conference in Vienna on Wednesday.

“By 2020, Europe could become a net importer, especially for polyethylene (PE). However, future growth in the region is expected to remain low,” he said.

At the same time, polypropylene (PP) will continue to become globally tighter, Wolfsberger added.

“The Chinese market intends to become self-sufficient but it is not clear if this refers to its own consumption or its own production; in the meantime, no PP capacity additions have been announced by 2021 in other regions,” he said.

As the Borealis executive pointed out, so far in 2017, the global capacity additions outpace demand growth and are leading to lower global PE operating rates.

With regard to regional PE trade by 2021, the Middle East will remain a strong exporter while China will be increasing its imports.

“Europe will have to increase its net PE imports to satisfy demand,” he said.

(Picture source: Source: Hufton + Crow/View Pictures/REX/Shutterstock)