Published on October 29, 2014
Methanol which is an expedient liquid fuel that is made from various different feedstock resources such as coal and natural gas as well as renewable resources similar to agricultural waste or forest thinning. Methanol which is also known as wood alcohol, is an essential building block for hundreds of vital chemical commodities like paints and coatings, building materials, plastic packaging and many more that touches our daily lives. In the countries like the US and China, Methanol has been used as a transportation fuel.
According to the researched report, between 2003 and 2013 the global methanol industry had witnessed a steady growth in spite of the global recession which had hit in the year 2008. Moreover, in terms of production and demand the developed regions such as North America and Europe had turned down, whereas in the petrochemicals and energy industries ACPC led the industry amid strong demand from major end-use sectors.
However in the next five years, any substantial increase in demand volume is not expected to experience by the North American and European markets. In addition to it, as the US has an access to contemptible and copious natural gas feedstock, a large amount of capacity is likely to be added in the country.
Furthermore, around the globe over 45 MMT of Methanol in the year 2010 was consumed, which is more or less equivalent to global ethanol fuel demand and by the year 2012 the global demand of Methanol is expected to reach around 50 MMT. Moreover for a wide range of uses from chemical feedstock to building materials to plastics, the US in the year 2010 had consumed Methanol around 5.3 million tons.
According to the researched report, for the month of October, 2014 the Canada based world leader in the supply, distribution and marketing of methanol Methanex Corporation had announced its ACPC for the month of October and had augmented its contract prices by USD 15/mts, whereas Asian Contract prices were posted at USD 435/mts. Nevertheless, most of the Methanol manufacturers have scheduled for turnaround at their plant this year 2014.
Furthermore, China will continue to remain the growth driver of the global Methanol industry, amid its higher-than-average demand growth and will also prolong to boost production capacity in order to fulfill this. In addition, over the next five years the production capacity of Methanol is expected to add on 22.17 million mt/year. By and large by the year 2018 the production capacity of Methanol in APAC is expected to augment around 27 million mt/year.
