Australia Petrochemicals Report 2008

Industry Overview Two petrochemicals complexes - one in Altona and the other in Botany Bay - constitute the two production hubs of the Australian petrochemicals industry. The industry manufactures a variety of products such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS) and synthetic rubber. Domestic company Qenos Holdings (acquired by China National Chemical (ChemChina)) is the largest operator in the Australian petrochemicals industry.

Industry Developments 2007 witnessed some consolidation in the industry with domestic company Wesfarmers announcing its takeover of Australian Vinyls Corporation. Also, Australian pipeline manufacturer Crane announced acquisition of local PE pipe and fitting manufacturer Kingston Bridge Engineering. Among other developments, MEO Australia, formerly known as Methanol Australia, won the backing of British oil engineering and services group Petrofac for its twin liquefied natural gas (LNG) and methanol projects in the Timor Sea and local Dyno Nobel announced plans to construct an industrial grade ammonium nitrate (IGAN) facility in Queensland.

Australia-US Trade Agreement From January 1 2005, the US-Australia free trade agreement (FTA) became effective. This has resulted in the elimination of more than 97% of US tariffs that were earlier applicable to Australia's non-agricultural exports. Further, tariffs on other items including textiles and footwear are likely to be eliminated by 2015.

As a result of this, Australia's exports of plastics and chemicals to the US have witnessed an uptrend in recent times.

Industry Outlook Home to abundant oil and gas reserves, coal and industrial minerals and boasting an internationally competitive business environment, Australia has outstanding potential to manufacture a broad range of chemicals. However, lack of availability of competitively priced ethane and high construction costs have had a negative impact on the petrochemicals industry. Though the global petrochemicals industry has improved and robust demand is forecast in many countries, it is unlikely that Australia's petrochemicals sector will be able to take significant advantage of this strong regional and global petrochemicals demand.

Ethylene and PE capacities are forecast to remain static at 555,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) and 385,000tpa, respectively, until 2008. PP capacity is forecast to touch 300,000tpa in 2008.