Total production capacity of styrene units hit 21.292 million tonnes/year in China, as Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical started the fourth 600,000 t/y ethylbenzene dehydrogenation unit and Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group operated its 200,000 t/y unit in Q3 2023, which also indicated that the production of new units has come to an end this year. Only Luoyang Petrochemical Engineering Corporation Ltd/Sinopec (LPEC) may put its 120,000 t/y new unit into operation within the year.
2023-2024 Styrene New Unit Operation Status (Unit: '000 t/y)
|
Enterprise |
Capacity |
Unit Operation Date |
|
Lianyungang Petrochemical |
600 |
Jan 2023 |
|
PetroChina Guangdong Petrochemical |
800 |
Mar 2023 |
|
Zibo Junchen New Material Technology |
500 |
Apr 2023 |
|
Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical (POSM unit) |
600 |
Jun 2023 |
|
Sinopec Anqing Petrochemical Company |
400 |
Jul 2023 |
|
Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group |
200 |
Sept 2023 |
|
Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical (ethylbenzene dehydrogenation unit) |
600 |
Sept 2023 |
|
LPEC |
120 |
The unit was constructed and may be started in Nov 2023. |
|
Shandong Zhongtai Chemical Technology |
600 |
The unit was under construction and may be started in Q1 2024. |
|
Shenghong Refining & Chemical (Lianyungang) |
400 |
The unit was under construction and may be started in Q4 2024. |
|
Dongming CITIC Guoan Ruihua New Material |
200 |
The unit construction was finished, while there was no operation plan for now. |
|
PetroChina Jilin Petrochemical Company |
600 |
The unit was under construction and may be started in 2025. |
Source: OilChem
A total of 3.7 million t/y production capacity has been newly released since early 2023, increased by 0.86 million t/y compared with the whole of last year. Up to now, China's styrene industry experienced the rapid capacity expansion by 21.03% to 21.292 million t/y in total. Moreover, ethylbenzene dehydrogenation units accounted for 83.78% in all newly-started units this year, which was of the largest proportion.
2019-2023 China Styrene Industry Capacity Change
Source: OilChem
Looking ahead to the year 2024, the number of styrene units that could be put into operation may see a significant drop, with a slower growth in the production capacity, since styrene units of Shandong Zhongtai Chemical Technology and Shenghong Refining & Chemical (Lianyungang) were under construction, while others were still under approval for construction.
Written by Cynthia Xin, xinyue@oilchem.net
Edited by Navy Liu, liuchuanjun@mysteel.com
