Ethylene has reached a capacity of 101.5 million tonnes by the end of 2000 from a level of about 64 million tonnes in 1990, indicating an average growth rate of 4.7% over the decade. During the same period, the consumption has also attained a similar growth rate reaching a level of almost 91 million tonnes (miot) in 2000. Overall capacity utilization of just about 90% has been achieved, which is not very healthy since a minimum of about 95% utilization is considered good for profitability. The distribution of Ethylene consumption is :

Ethylene Consumption

It is expected that demand will grow by 5% in the next 5 years. The need of Ethylene for Polyethylene will gradually increase. It is estimated that 60% of total demand by 2010 - 2015 will be used for Polyethylenes.

Global ethylene capacity is predominantly stronger in North America. Infact ¹/₃ of the total capacity is located in North America. Nova's 2.8 million tpa ethylene capacity at Joffre in Canada is presently the largest capacity at one site. Asia Pacific with 25.5 million tpa has reached second rank. Infact it has beaten Western Europe in capacity. The capacity distribution is illustrated below:

World Ethylene Capacity

During 2000 net capacity increased by almost 6.6 million tons. This capacity increase has been the largest so far. The Middle East region accounted for almost 2 million tonnes out of the 6.6 million tonnes. The Asia-Pacific region added almost 1.6 million tonnes. North & South America accounted for the rest of the capacity development.

The top 15 countries including USA, Canada from North America, Germany, France, Netherlands, UK and Italy from Western Europe and Japan, China , South Korea, India and Taiwan from Asia along with Saudi Arabia , Former Soviet Union and Brazil constitute almost 80% of the total capacity. Click here for a complete list of countries involved in Ethylene production.

Dow Chemical is the largest producers with 10 million tonnes capacity. The global top 10 producers are listed below:

Top Ten Companies