Asia-Pacific driving polypropylene demand, says Ceresana

The market research firm said Asia-Pacific countries already account for more than half of worldwide PP consumption, followed by Western Europe and North America.

Ceresana said it expects a dynamic growth of worldwide revenues amounting to more than US$145bn in 2019.

The average annual growth rate of 4.4% of the last eight years is likely to be surpassed in the future, the report said.

Asia-Pacific increase​

Asia-Pacific will increase their shares of the global PP market, said Ceresana, mainly at the expense of saturated industrialized countries.

The packaging industry will remain the major sales market, given increasing wealth among an ever growing population, they added.

Major PP consumers are producers of flexible and rigid packaging, who account for an aggregated demand of more than 50%.

The most dynamic growth rates until 2019 will be recorded in the transportation industry and the production of rigid packaging.

The analysts forecast continued positive growth for the Chinese economy, leading to a constant propitious environment for the PP industry.

Global capacity growth​

Global PP capacity of about 62 million tonnes is likely to extend by more than 23.5 million tonnes by 2019.

More than 57% of these new capacities will be built in the Asia-Pacific region.

The food packaging and consumer goods sector will be able to benefit from this development, which will stimulate demand for PP used to produce films and sheets.

Many emerging and developing countries will benefit from an increasing demand in all application areas and changes in regional demand will also have an effect on the production structure of manufacturers.

Ceresana said the major application area will remain the flexible and rigid packaging sector, albeit with significant regional and country specific differences.

The report features 30 countries and companies analysed include Braskem, Borealis and Exxon Mobil.