July 2013
Featured in this insight: Chemicals, Financial services, International
New market research findings show petrochemicals industry set to grow to USD 791 billion by 2018: New research from Transparency Market Research suggests that the global petrochemicals market is set to be valued at more than 791 billion US dollars by 2018. The same market was valued at 472.06 billion in 2011, giving a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 6.7% between 2012 and 2018. This growth in revenue will be fuelled by an increase in consumption – up from 436.86 million tons in 2011 to 627.51 million tons in 2018, representing a CAGR of 5.4%.
In the next five years, the key drivers for the petrochemical industry include favourable operating conditions in the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and increasing consumption from key sectors supplied by the industry – including construction, packaging, healthcare, plastics and textiles. However, growing environmental concerns over issues such as global warming and fracking are predicted to be key challenges, and regulatory moved have encouraged the industry to invest increasing in bio-based alternatives to petrochemicals.
Petrochemical production was dominated by ethylene in 2011 – generating over 28% of the total consumption in that year due in part to increasing demand for polyethylene (a major ethylene derivative) from the packaging industry. Methanol is predicted to be the fastest growing petrochemical, with a CAGR of 10.3% from 2012-18.
In 2011, the top ten petrochemicals companies, including the likes of BASF, Sinopec and Exxon Mobil, accounted for 49% of the total market – with these three alone accounting for almost 20% of the total market share.
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