West European ethylene production increased by 8.1% on the year in 2010, with output reaching 20.281 million mt, the Association of Petrochemicals Producers in Europe said in a statement Tuesday.
Similar increases were seen in propylene and butadiene production.
Propylene production was up by 5.6% from 2009, to 15.028 million mt in 2010.
Butadiene production was up by almost 15% in 2010 at 2.079 million mt.
In 2010, ethylene production in Q4 was 4.971 million mt, down from Q3's 5.161 million mt, a drop of 3.7%. Propylene production in Q4 was at 3.642 million mt, down 5.2% from 3.843 million mt in Q3. Butadiene production in Q4 was 535,000 mt up 1.5% from the Q3 figure of 527,000 mt.
Improved production rates for olefin producers were caused by a number of factors. After the financial crises there has been some rationalization of the European asset base. Some laggard assets, which could no longer compete, were taken offline. This allowed the remaining producers to run at higher utilization rates.
Downstream demand has also improved in 2010 on the back of inventory replenishment after massive destocking in 2008. Some underlying demand has also picked up in some applications. Healthy market fundamentals in 2010 resulted in improved profitability levels for olefin producers.
In addition, there has been a delay in the startup of new petrochemical projects in the Middle East, and demand could be met domestically in Europe.
