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Acrylonitrile is a large-volume commodity chemical. Capacity compared with consumption is in surplus in North America and in deficit in Asia. World production in 2004 was estimated at just over 5 million metric tons.
The global market for acrylonitrile is currently quite balanced. After a period of oversupply in 2001, brought about by the start-up of two large production units (Solutia and Formosa Plastics), many closures in Western countries offset capacity growth and brought the market into better balance. In fact, during 2002 and 2003, Veba’s plant in Germany and both plants of EniChem in Italy stopped production, thus withdrawing a total of 290 thousand metric tons of capacity from the market. In North America, Sterling Chemicals shut down its 340 thousand metric ton plant at Texas City for over two years (from February 2001 to October 2003). As of March 2005, the plant has been idled again, resulting temporarily in a somewhat tight global acrylonitrile market. However, the situation eased in May 2005 when Shanghai Secco Petrochemical started its new 260 thousand metric ton plant in China. In general, a shift of capacity from Western to Asian countries has occurred during the last three to four years.
North America is still the largest acrylonitrile exporter; Asia is the major import area. However, recent and future expansions in Asia will result in a shrinking export market for North America. Costs of acrylonitrile production are highly dependent upon propylene and ammonia values. During the last two years, prices for acrylonitrile have increased substantially (by more than one-third), mainly because of rising feedstock costs. For this reason, and also because of weak demand, acrylonitrile margins remain poor.
World consumption of acrylonitrile was approximately 5 million metric tons in 2004. Major applications include acrylic fibers, styrene copolymer resins, adiponitrile (for manufacture of hexamethylenediamine used in nylon 66 fibers and resins), and acrylamide for water treatment polymers.
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