Chemical Industry Digest: Promising Future for Indian Petrochemicals Industry

The global petrochemical industry has quite evidently been strained over the course of 2020 and 2021 due to reasons such as unexpected disruptions in the global supply chain and decreased demand due to the pandemic, creating turmoil within the energy markets. Many end industries have been hit quite hard, for instance, the automotive industry, contributing to the overall decline in petrochemical demand.

The price of crude oil dropped drastically at the beginning of the pandemic, which had a new impact on the chemical market. The usual feedstock cost advantage (cheap shale gas ethane) for the US and the Middle East has disappeared. As a result, Asian and European manufacturers had an advantage because cheap naphtha from the crude was available. Players in the United States and the Middle East experienced margin pressure as a result of having to compete with cheap chemicals on the international market. This situation serves as a constant reminder for other regions that they must contend with low-cost chemicals originating from the US and the Middle East on the market.

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