Imported Methanol to Olefins Has Certain Development Prospects

According to relevant data, under the premise of ensuring economic efficiency, during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, China will appropriately install imported methanol-to-olefins projects in coastal areas.

Chang Yingzhi, a researcher in the chemical industry of China Investment Advisors, believes that although the import of methanol to olefins will face the risk that imported methanol will not be able to be safeguarded, if there is a moderate distribution, China's import of methanol to olefins projects in the coastal areas will have certain development prospects. On the one hand, China's current demand for olefins is relatively large, while domestic olefin production cannot meet the needs of the domestic market. The use of imported methanol to produce olefins can, to some extent, ease the current shortage of domestic olefins production.

According to relevant data, at present, China's olefin products are mainly formed by the cracking of petroleum brains. In 2010, the cumulative production of naphtha in China was approximately 25.27 million tons, if calculated according to the production of 1 ton of olefins by cracking 3 tons of naphtha. Assuming that China's petroleum brain production in 2010 will be used for the production of olefin products, it will only produce about 842 million tons of olefins, which is far less than the demand for domestic olefins.

On the other hand, the source of raw materials for catalytic cracking of naphtha in China is now insufficient; coal-based olefins are also facing problems such as cost, technology, and environmental protection. At present, the global methanol production capacity is relatively sufficient, and the methanol in the Middle East has a certain cost advantage, which makes the price of imported methanol in China relatively low. Therefore, the use of cheap imported methanol to prepare olefin products with large gaps in the domestic market will also produce certain economic benefits.

The "2010-2015 China Coal-to-Olefin Market Investment Analysis and Prospect Forecast Report" released by the China Investment Advisor shows that before China, it has been using catalytic cracking of naphtha to produce olefins. The main producers are Sinopec and PetroChina. In recent years, due to breakthroughs in related technologies for coal-to-olefins, China's coal-to-olefins projects have been increasing. At the same time, the imported methanol to olefins project has also been rapidly rolled out in China.