China Polypropylene Industry Report

China has become the largest polypropylene net import country in the world. Yet, due to the rapid growth in domestic output, the import dependence degree has been declining on the whole, from 49.2% in 1995 to 34.6% in 2006.

In 2006, China's imported polypropylene mainly came from surrounding countries and regions, among which South Korea accounted for 30%, followed by Taiwan, Singapore, America, Thailand and Japan. Currently, an annual demand gap of 3 million tons of polypropylene still exists in China.

It is estimated that in 2008, China's polypropylene industry will enter the new round investment peak period and, the annual production capacity of nearly 6 million tons will be put into operation, about 65% of which will belong to the two large-scale groups, i.e., Sinopec and PetroChina.