Supply and demand trends of global ethylene market

The global production capacity of ethylene reached 92.704 million tons per year by the end of 1999, and the demand of ethylene was 85 million tons in 1999. Drived by the strong global economic growth in the near term, forecast of demand annual growth rate of ethylene will be 5.2%, and the demand of ethylene will increase to 109.412 million tons by 2004. The global production capacity of ethylene is forecasted to increase to 116.525 million tons by 2004 with a annual growth rate of 4.7%. Ethylene industry rapidly grows in China in the recent years. Now there are 18 sets of production installations, and their total production capacity is 4.403 million tons yearly. The consumption of ethylene was over 9 million tons in 1999, and it is expected that it will rise to 15 million tons by 2010.