Booming GCC chemical trade presses demand for customs reforms

摘要

Due to relatively small regional markets, combined with the fact that the regional petrochemical production facilities have been built to be among the world-largest in order to fully leverage economies of scale, the petrochemical industry in the Arabian Gulf region has adopted an export-oriented approach since its early production days in the 1980s. Over the past five years, the GCC petrochemical industry has been growing at a compound annual growth rate of 8%, increasing from 37.2mn tonnes in 2008 to 67.6mn tonnes in 2014 and exporting to 180 countries worldwide. Asia accounts for nearly 2/3 of GCC chemical exports, with markets in Africa and Europe, but also intra-GCC trade demonstrating strong growth.