The Middle East is set to lead capacity growth in the global acetic acid industry from planned and announced projects between 2019 and 2023, contributing around 43% by 2023, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The company’s report, ‘Global Acetic Acid Industry Outlook to 2023 – Capacity and Capital Expenditure Forecasts with Details of All Active and Planned Plants’, reveals that the Middle East is expected to have a new-build acetic acid capacity of 1.30 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from two planned and announced projects.

Dayanand Kharade, Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData, says: “Oman Oil Company ‘Duqm Acetic Acid Plant’, and Bushehr Petrochemical Company ‘Assaluyeh Acetic Acid Plant’ are the two new-build projects in the Middle East, collectively accounting for the entire capacity additions.”

GlobalData identified Asia as the second highest region in terms of capacity additions in the global acetic acid industry. The region will add a new-build capacity of 0.94 mtpa by 2023.

The entire capacity additions will be from, ‘Shanghai Huayi Company Qinzhou Acetic Acid Plant’, ‘Inner Mongolia Donghua Energy Jungar Qi Acetic Acid Plant’ and ‘Henan Longyu Coal Chemical Luoyang Acetic Acid Plant’ with the capacities of 0.50 mtpa, 0.40 mtpa, and 0.04 mtpa, respectively.

Kharade concludes: “North America stands third, with the expansion acetic acid capacity of 0.65 mtpa by 2023. The entire capacity addition will be from the planned projects, ‘Celanese Corporation Clear Lake Acetic Acid Plant’, and ‘Celanese Corporation Clear Lake Acetic Acid Plant Expansion’ which are expected to come online by 2023.”