Load capacity for the production of polyethylene and polypropylene in Russia is approaching a critical level

The total potential for the production of two basic polymers (polyethylene and polypropylene) in Russia is 3 million 310 thousand tons, while the number of manufacturers is limited to ten enterprises, only four of which produce both polymers. This was reported by the head of the Department of Analytics INVENTRA Lola Ogrel during the conference “Polyethylene. Polypropylene 2017”.

Since 2012, the capacity for the production of polypropylene has more than doubled and amounted to 1 million 420 thousand tons by the end of 2016. At the same time, the capacity utilization rate reached 97%, which indicates the imminent cessation of the rapid growth of PP production observed over the past four years.

Capacity for the production of polyethylene in Russia is close to 2 million tons, but in recent years they are growing only through modernization of existing production. According to the results of last year, the load was 91%, and the total output of polyethylene reached 1 million 716 thousand tons, which is 7% more than in 2015.

Production of low-pressure polyethylene in 2016 increased by 10%, exceeding 1 million tons, but still has not reached the level of 2013. In 2016, Nizhnekamskneftekhim launched a modernized production of alpha-olefins, which allowed to replace their purchase on imports and significantly reduce the cost of production of linear low-pressure polyethylene. Due to this, the production of linear PE increased by 1.6 times and reached 73.5 thousand tons.

Production of high-pressure polyethylene remained almost at the level of the previous year, having decreased by only 6 thousand tons.