As shown in the figure below, global PTA capacity in 1981 was about 3.5 million metric tons per year with most of the capacity in the United States. Over the last twenty years PTA capacity has exploded at an annual growth rate of over 10 percent per annum with a steady shift in regional capacity share to Asia. In 1991, Asia accounted for 56 percent of global capacity while in 2001 Asia increased its share to nearly 70 percent. This shift in capacity to Asia has followed the tremendous growth of polyester production facilities in this region.

REGIONAL PTA CAPACITY GROWTH, 1981-2001

Another approach to reducing production costs besides building capacity in low cost regions is to decrease capital cost per unit volume of product by increasing the size of plants, either in terms of single line size or combining lines in one complex and sharing common handling and OSBL elements. The figure on the following page tracks the size of
PTA plants by region over the 1981 to 2001 timeframe. In the U.S., plant size has always been rather large and has improved incrementally over the last twenty years through debottlenecking and expansions to existing facilities. In EMEA (mostly W. Europe), average plant size was a smallish 126 KMTA in 1981 and has increased to 288 KMTA in 2001. However, even this size plant is not very economic in terms of the rest of the world's capacity. In Asia, average plant size was small in 1981, but Asia now has boosted its plant size on average to 382 KMTA. New Asian single line plants of 700-800 KMTA are currently in the planning stage.

AVERAGE PTA PLANT SIZE, 1981-2001

This new PERP report analyzes the cost of production savings of mega-sized PTA plants as well as looking at DuPont's recently patented plug-flow PTA reactor and a speculative aqueous oxidation process.

Nexant ChemSystems Reports

Browse other Nexant research reports by category:

Process Evaluation/Research Planning - PERP

Petroleum and Petrochemical Economics - PPE

PolyOlefin Planning Service - POPS

Topical Reports

About Nexant

Nexant, Inc. helps clients unlock the value of their energy assets by enabling them to make informed decisions with greater confidence, speed, and reliability. Our goal is to help clients sucessfully meet the challenges they face in the global energy market.