Capacity of Butadiene Will Be Surplus    

Butadiene is an important basic organic raw material in the petrochemical industry. Its position among olefin raw materials is surpassed only by ethylene and propylene. Butadiene has extensive applications in the synthetic rubbers and organic synthesis sectors. It can be used to synthesize ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) resin and various rubber products such as BR (polybutadiene rubber) and SBR (styrene-butadiene rubber). It can also be used to produce organic chemical products such as hexane dinitrile and hexane diamine.

Rapid output increase in China

With the completion of a 90 thousand t/a butadiene unit at CNPC Lanzhou Petrochemical Company Ltd.,(CCR 2006, No.34) the production capacity of butadiene in China has already reached 1.661 million t/a. The capacity in the butadiene unit of CNPC Jilin Petrochemical Company Ltd. is the largest, being 230 thousand t/a and accounting for 13.8% of the national total. The output of butadiene in China reached 1.153 million tons in 2006, a rise of 10.9%.
   China's output of butadiene cannot satisfy domestic demand, and imports are necessary every year. Due to the completion of butadiene projects such as a 30 thousand t/a unit at BlueStar Tianjin Petrochemical Company Ltd. (CCR2006, No. 18), a 165 thousand t/a unit at CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals Co., Ltd., a 100 thousand t/a unit at Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical Company Ltd. (CCR2006, No. 24) and a 90 thousand t/a unit at CNPC Lanzhou Petrochemical Company Ltd., China imported only 89.2 thousand tons in 2006, a drop of 39.4% from 2005. Before 2003 imports were mainly from neighboring countries and regions such as Korea, Japan and Taiwan province. In recent years, however, the amount imported from India, the United States, Brazil and the Netherlands has increased constantly.
   Due to the supply deficit in the domestic market, many local enterprises plan to construct or expand butadiene units. If all these projects are completed on schedule, the capacity to make butadiene domestically will exceed 2.7 million t/a in 2010.

Consumption increase steadily

With the rapid development of the synthetic rubber industry, the apparent consumption of butadiene has increased constantly in recent years. The apparent consumption of butadiene was 782.5 thousand tons in 2001 and increased to 1.2153 million tons in 2006 with an average annual growth of around 9.2% during 2001-2006.
    The demand for synthetic rubbers and ABS resin will continue to increase dramatically in the next few years and will promote the demand for butadiene. It is expected that the demand for butadiene will grow at an average annual rate of 8.7% during 2006 - 2010, and reach around 1.7 million tons in 2010.  If the production capacity for butadiene actually grows to more than 2.7 million t/a by that time, China will likely depend heavily on export to utilize that capacity.

Table 1  Supply and Consumption of Butadiene in China
           from 2001 to 2006    (thousand tons)
Year    Output    Import    Export    Apparent consumption
2001    645        140.3    2.8        782.5
2002    736       103.6    12.2    827.4
2003    858       135.9    11.8    982.1
2004    873        195.9    3.6       1 065.3
2005    1 040    147.2    12.0    1 175.2
2006    1 153    89.2    26.9    1 215.3
Source: CNCIC

Table 2  Major Butadiene Projects in China     (thousand t/a)
Producer                                      Capacity    Remark
Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical Co.              100    to be completed
at the end of 2007
CNPC Daqing Petrochemical Co.                70    to be completed
in 2009
Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Co.        160    to be completed
in 2008
CNPC Dushanzi Petrochemical Co.              130    to be completed
in 2008
CNPC Fushun Petrochemical Co.                 120    to be completed
in 2010
Sinopec Tianjin Petrochemical Co.             200    to be completed
in 2008
CNPC and Chengdu Petrochemical Co.            150    to be completed
in 2010
CNPC Xinjiang Dushanzi Petrochemical Co.    130    to be completed
in 2008
Source: CNCIC