Operations in the Far East

The nameplate capacity of ethylene plants in the Far East is now over 28 million tonnes. This corresponds to over 25% of the world s total 

Most of this growth has concerned the growth of China and suppliers of commodity resins and chemical intermediates to the rapidly growing Chinese market. 

Over the decade there has been some increase in capacity in South Korea (5.3%) which is close to the regions average growth rate of 6.5%. Australia, Indonesia and Japan have not changed significantly in capacity, the economies of these nations relying more on imports from South East Asia and the Middle East. 

There are two major centres one based on Botany Bay near Sydney and the other at Altona in Melbourne. They produce the bulk of the ethylene which is made from ethane, with some supplementary LPG 

The massive expansion of the Chinese economy has had a profound impact on the production and use of commodity plastics in China. The first is the considerable growth in demand for polymer products which have outstripped local supply and as a consequence China is a major importer. This has had the effect of promoting large export oriented plants in other Asian countries, with large parts of their product slate destined for the Chinese market. China is now second to Japan in the amount of ethylene produced in the Far East. The Chinese nameplate capacity is almost 7 million tonnes/year. 

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Total has also long been interested in the bulk removal of acid gases notably, in gas fields operated in the Far East, containing over 40% CO2, as well as in the Caspian sea... 

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