Market Overview
Quarterly update on global Linear Alpha Olefins
For the Quarter Ending December 2020
Asia
In the Asia Pacific region, overall demand for LAO marginally increased, as some countries like China received some good demand while its consumption in several Northeast Asian countries remained dull. Dow, one of the world’s leading olefins supplier revealed that they received appreciable offtakes of LAO from downstream Polyethylene sector specifically by Sadara, Kuwait and Thai joint venture due to the consistent upliftment in its polyethylene profit margins. Consequently, the average product prices were also increased by 8% in Q4 2020 compared to the previous quarter. In the Indian market, CFR prices of LAO C20-C24 increased from USD 366.83 USD to 464.16 per MT from October to December.
North America
For North America region, Dow revealed that, in USA & Canada, the demand for packaging and speciality chemicals marginally declined due to the regional impact of hurricane outage in November, but the overall demand for LAO in the final quarter was deemed good. Some olefins like C4-C8 which are used in packaging and plastics sector faced extraordinary demand that let to increase in its prices by 8% from the previous quarter. Exxon Mobil, another leading supplier of LAO also revealed that, they observed appreciable sales from downstream LAO segments, moving from Q3 to Q4 2020.
Europe
During the final quarter of 2020, imports from USA faced severe disruption due to the adverse seasonal hurricanes specially in November, which created supply shortage and contributed to hike the prices of downstream Polyethylene and Polypropylene in the packaging industry. Exxon Mobil also showed that in the final quarter 2020, production of petroleum products as well as olefins downstream products remained low compared to same quarter of 2019, due to the second wave of COVID-19 in several parts.
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Services
Market Analysis
Company-wise installed capacity, production volume and plant operating efficiency is captured directly from manufacturers. Import and Export volume is captured from government sources and demand for Acrylonitrile is calculated considering the production, import, export and inventory-levels on the country and regional level markets.
Pricing Analysis
Acrylonitrile price is correlated with the price trend of crude oil, demand-supply gap, Propylene and with movement across the downstream derivatives such as acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN) etc.
Company Profile
Basic details and information on financial performance of leading global players in the Acrylonitrile market is presented in a visually captivating manner. Expansion plans and the company’s strategy is also captured to understand the vision and mission of the company to help understand the areas where companies need to focus more.
News & Deals
Daily updates on industry-specific and product-specific news, exclusive primary-based news capturing plant shutdowns/outages/closures, capacity expansions, operating rates, insights on demand-supply situation, awarding of technology licenses, new product launch and deals specifying mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments and disinvestments, to help players capitalize on market opportunity.
Methodology
ChemAnalyst gathers information through primary research surveys conducted with various Linear alpha olefins manufacturers, spread across the domestic and international market, suppliers and dealers/distributors to gain insights into value-chains and demand-supply scenario to assess the market situation. Thorough study of company’s annual reports and secondary sources such as exhaustive search on credible paid databases, including our internal database is done to verify the information. All the collected information is analysed, evaluated and presented in chronological order to depict a meaningful and clear picture of the concerned market.
Our dedicated team of industry experts comprehensively monitors and analyses various aspects of the Global Linear alpha olefins market. The team analyses various industrial segments, strategic viewpoints and provides an analysis of the industry’s performance in the long run. This would enable our clients in efficiently plan their future investments, mitigate risk, understand the cost dynamics and strike out a balance amidst market volatility.
Critical examination of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the global supply chains and shift in demand patterns with change in buying behaviour of consumers across the globe.
Several ongoing development projects across industries are tracked, followed by the details of major projects in the development stage, which can positively or negatively influence Global Linear alpha olefins market.
Pricing is captured through exhaustive primary interviews with domestic and international manufacturers, traders and importers and customers on monthly and yearly basis.
Finally, region-specific markets for Linear alpha olefins are analysed and region-wise demand pattern is tracked.
About
Linear Alpha Olefins (LAO) are important industrial alkenes with chemical formula CnH2n. LAO has a wide range of uses that varies with number of carbons in a compound, like C4 to C8 are used in polyethylene copolymers, C10 are utilized in synthetic lubricants, C12-C14 in detergents, and above C20 are used as an additive in lubricants. LAO is majorly consumed by downstream industries like packaging, lubricant, wax and others. Several other uses of LAO include plasticizers, synthetic acids and on oil fields. LAOs are commercially produced by mainly two methods i.e., oligomerisation of Ethylene and by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. In Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen are converted into liquid hydrocarbon in the presence of metal catalyst.
