Regional Production Economics for Ethylene and Propylene Derivatives

Abstract

Many developing countries have implemented aggresslve programs to develop domestic petrochemical capacity. In those regions with abundant, low cost feedstocks, the competitive advantage seems obvious. However, other regions such as South korea and Taiwan, have equally aggressive programs. This paper quantifies the significant production cost indices in each of 10 regions, and uses those indices to calculate the production cost of major ethylene and propylene derivatives. The regions considered are: Brazil, Western Canada, China, Indonesia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan, the US Gulf Coast, and West Germany. The timeframe of the analysis was fourth quarter, 1989. The derivatives considered in this paper are listed below: ETHYLENE DERIVATIVES * High density polyethylene (HDPE) * Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) * Ethylene glycol (EG) * Ethylene dichloride (EDC) * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) * Styrene (STY) * Polystyrene (PS) * Linear alpha olefins (LAO) * Ethanol (C2OH) PROPYLENE DERIVATIVES * Polypropylene homopolymer (PP-H) * Polypropylene block copolymer (PP-BC) * Acrylonitrile (ACN) * Propylene glycol (PG) * Cumene (CUM) * 2-Ethylhexanol (2EH) * Isopropyl alcohol (IPA)