Petrochemical production in China rises despite environment curbs
Key petrochemicals production in China continues to rise amid a slew of new capacities, and appears to shore up its economy, following its trade war with the US, by softening environmental restrictions on polluting industries on the other side.
Despite the environmental curbs, which are apparently less stringent in 2018, production of primary feedstock and petrochemicals, including naphtha, benzene, toluene, styrene, propylene and the major plastics, was up in January-September 2018 against the same period of last year. Higher production can partly be attributed to new plants starting from late 2017 and also because China adopted measures to shore up its economy, including liquidity injection, tax cuts and easing of anti-pollution policies to ward off the adverse impact on growth from its trade war with the US.
The government has pursued and enforced strict environmental measures since 2016 to improve air quality, water pollution and ground contamination. Many petrochemical plants and derivative units had to stop production.
Last month, the Chinese government announced the easing of some environmental measures that came into force for winter production starting from October and ending in March 2019. Although, the impact on overall production will be known later, the first nine months of 2018 showed output of several major petrochemicals rise year-on-year.
