Going by the trends witnessed in 2010 and 2011 and also by an unprecedented hike in PTA capacity in the next 2-3 years, Chinese PX imports are likely to grow rapidly in the next few years.
Chinese monthly PX production averaged between 500,000-550,000 tons in 2011 and monthly imports registered between 350,000-370,000 tons. This resulted in an average monthly supply of between 850,000-920,000 tons.
Going by the average PTA production of 1.40 million tons per month, actual PX demand was around 930,000 tons per month.
Chinese PX imports in the first ten months of 2011 touched 4.07 million tons and which greatly exceeded those in 2010 and 2011 PX imports are expected to grow 35 percent over 2010.
Experts expect that PX imports will continue its rapid growth in 2012 and might cross the 6.0 million tons mark.