Asia leads global glycol capacity expansion

 Global ethylene glycol (EG) capacity will grow rapidly over the next five years, growing from 41.8 million tonnes/year in 2019 to 65.04 million tonnes/year in 2024, with a capacity growth rate of 56%, says data analytics firm GlobalData in its latest report "Global Glycol Industry Outlook to 2024".

According to the report, by region, Asia will lead the rapid growth in global ethylene glycol capacity, which is expected to grow from 23.1 million tons/year in 2019 to 4.08 million tons/year in 2024, at a CAGR of 11%. The new capacity is mainly coming from 32 new and expansion projects, of which 29 are new construction projects and another three are expansion projects.

Dayanand Kharade, oil and gas analyst at GlobalData, said: "In the next five years, the majority of new glycol capacity additions in Asia will come from China, which will account for about 73% of the new glycol capacity added in Asia, and new-build projects will account for the majority of the new glycol capacity added in China. "

Over the next five years, India will be the second largest country in Asia in terms of new glycol capacity, with capacity growing from 2.22 million tonnes/year in 2019 to 5.07 million tonnes/year in 2024, at an average annual growth rate of 16.6%, GlobalData said. India's new glycol capacity will mainly come from Haldia Petrochemicals' Kakinada glycol plant, with a plant design capacity of 750,000 mtpa.

Indonesia will become the third largest country in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of new glycol capacity, with the capacity increasing from 220,000 mtpa in 2019 to 920,000 mtpa in 2024, with an average annual growth rate of 28.9%. Over the next five years, the main source of new ethylene glycol capacity in Indonesia will be Rakuten Chemical's Cilegon ethylene glycol plant. The plant will be commissioned in 2023 and will have a design capacity of 700,000 mt/year of ethylene glycol.