China on path to achieving PTA self-sufficiency

21 Dec '09

2 min read

China's PTA production capacity surpassed South Korea, Taiwan and the United States by the end of 2005, to become the world's No. 1 producer of PTA. China's PTA production capacity has maintained rapid growth since then. Against a production of 5.895 million PTA capacity in 2005, total production capacity reached 8.8 million tons in 2006.

With the beginning of operations of a 900,000 tons plant in Zhuhai and 800,000 tons of a plant set up by Ningbo (Taiwan) in 2008, China's PTA production capacity touched 12.20 million tons. By the end of 2008, China's PTA production capacity accounted for a quarter of the world total capacity and one-third of Asian capacity.

Since entering 2009, the State has initiated several PTA projects, which includes 600,000 tons per year PTA plant in Shishi, Fujian, 600,000 tons per year unit of Hanbag in Jiangyin, Jiangsu and 600,000 tons per annum PTA plant in Fuling, Chongqing. In addition the state has also granted permission for 1.5 million tons additional capacity of Dahua Petrochemical in Yishen and 900,000 tons of new capacity in Chongqing.

China's status as a big PTA-producing country cannot be now underestimated, which has also increased China's PTA pricing. PTA futures markets are becoming increasingly active and the influence of futures prices on spot market is gradually expanding and also lead to a dependence on imports of the key raw material.

In January to October of 2009, China's total imports of PTA reached 4.1526 million tons, an increase of only 47,900 tons, above the 4.1047 million tons imported in the same period of 2008, an increase of only 1.17 percent.

Fibre2fashion News Desk

More Textiles News - Asia...