EUROPE CHEMICAL PROFILE
SAM WEATHERLAKE AND ELAINE BURRIDGE PROFILE LAST PUBLISHED MAY 31, 2010
Acetic acid
USES
Acetic acid’s largest consumer is vinyl acetate
monomer (VAM), used in paints, adhesives,
textiles, paper, films and chewing gum.
The second-largest outlet is purified tereph-
thalic acid (PTA), used in polyethylene
terephthalate (PET) bottles and polyester fib-
ers. Acetic anhydride and solvents (ethyl ace-
tate, butyl acetate) are the third- and fourth-
largest users, respectively.
SUPPLY/DEMAND
The European market balance varied greatly
in 2011. Force majeure declarations from UK-
based BP Chemicals and US-headquartered
Celanese in the first half of the year saw the
market move from balanced to tight. Availa-
bility improved once Celanese’s unit in Nan-
jing, China, and BP’s facility at Hull restarted.
During the tight period, a number of sourc-
es turned to the well-supplied Chinese market
to look for opportunities to move material
from China to Europe. When ships started to
arrive in the second quarter, product easily
found a home, but by September it was evi-
dent that supply was starting to outweigh de-
mand. By the end of the year, the market was
largely balanced once more.
Assuming that there is no major loss of pro-
duction among European suppliers, the acetic
acid market is expected to remain fairly bal-
anced through 2012.
PRICES
European contract prices in the fourth quarter
of 2011 fell by around €70–100/tonne ($91–
EUROPEAN ACETIC ACID SPOT AND
CONTRACT PRICES
€/tonne FD NWE
900
Spot
Contract
800
700
600
500
400
Jan Jan
2010 2012
42 | ICIS Chemical Business | January 30-February 12, 2012
ICB_300112_042 42
130/tonne). Values were assessed by ICIS at EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA ACETIC
€550–600/tonne FD (free delivered) NWE ACID CAPACITY ’000 TONNES/YEAR
(Northwest Europe). Company Location Capacity
Market participants generally agreed that BP Chemicals Hull, UK 520
this represented the average reduction from
Saudi International Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia 460
quarter three, although some reported num- Petrochemical
bers outside this range. Sources attributed the
Nevinnomyssk Azot Nevinnomyssk, Russia 170
price reductions to ample availability of mate-
SSME Azot Severodonetsk, 150
rial rather than any marked drop in demand.
Association Ukraine
Some contract business is now conducted
Fanavaran Bandar Imam, Iran 150
on a monthly basis. European spot prices de-
Petrochemical
clined from a 2011 high of €800–900/tonne
Wacker Chemie Burghausen, Germany 120
FD NWE, recorded in early May, to €470–
500/tonne FD NWE at the beginning of Janu- MSK Kikinda Serbia 100
ary 2012. Doljchim Craiova Romania 90
Lonza Visp, Switzerland 50
TECHNOLOGY Arabian Industrial Yanbu, Saudi Arabia 30
The dominant process is methanol carbonyla- Fibers
tion, which accounts for more than 65% of Arak Petrochemical Arak, Iran 30
world capacity. Other processes are the oxida- SEKAB Domsjo, Sweden 25
tion of acetaldehyde (used by German pro- Navoiazot Navoi, Uzbekistan 25
ducer Wacker) and the liquid-phase oxidation
Sasol Chemical Secunda, South Africa 16
of n-butane or naphtha. Industries
Developments by companies including Ja-
Sekisui Specialty Tarragona, Spain 10
pan’s Showa Denko, Wacker and Saudi Ara- Chemicals Europe
bia’s SABIC are based on the oxidation of eth- SOURCE: ICIS
ylene, ethane or methane.
Wacker has investigated three bio-based
routes. The ACEO process involves conver- in Jiangsu province, to 50% in December in
sion of a biomass feedstock to ethanol (using response to mounting inventories.
yeast), producing acetic acid via gas phase Consequently, Asia’s capacity to meet any
oxidation. A 500 tonne/year pilot plant has shortfall in Europe, as demonstrated by the
been running in Burghausen, Germany, since large volumes imported in mid-2011, seems
late 2009. assured for the foreseeable future.
A second route converts biomass-based bu- Europe will remain structurally depend-
tanediol (BDO) to methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), ent on imports, with an increasing propor-
then acetic acid, while the third involves di- tion likely to be sourced from Asia and the
rectly converting biomass to acetate/acetic Middle East.
acid using bacteria. Demand is very difficult to predict at this
time on account of the prevailing economic
OUTLOOK uncertainty in Europe, but this in itself may
The European market for acetic acid is mature reduce offtake in the coming months.
and there are no plans to invest in additional Speaking at the World Methanol Confer-
capacity in the region. This is in sharp con- ence in December 2011, Nigel Suttie, direc-
trast with Asia, where some 1m tonnes/year tor of syngas chemicals for global consultan-
of capacity was added in 2011. cy CMAI, forecast that demand in Western
Additional proposed capacity totalling and Central Europe would grow by 1.2% an-
more than 3m tonnes/year is under considera- nually over the next five years, driven princi-
tion in China and India. pally by new downstream PTA capacity
There is currently no lack of supply in Asia, coming on line. O
as illustrated by Chinese producer Jiangsu For the latest market prices and reports on
Sopo’s decision to cut operating rates at its more than 120 commodity chemicals, please
1.4m tonne/year acetic acid plant at Zhenjiang, visit icispricing.com
www.icis.com
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