Taiwan's petrochemical industry might have a challenging year

摘要

2012 will be a challenging year for Taiwan's petrochemical industry amid rising crude oil prices, the macroeconomic slump and increased production capacity from rivals in China and the Middle East, as per a market researcher in Taipeitimes.com. Crude prices are estimated to hover at US$100-110 per barrel, pressurizing profit margins for midstream to downstream petrochemical products, according to the Industrial Economics and Knowledge Research Center at the Industrial Technology Research Institute. Additionally, China's 12th five year economic plan has outlined a plan to ramp up ethylene production capacity by 7-8 mln tpa to 23 mln tpa by 2015.