Polyethylene terephthalate production is likely to exceed 24 million tons in 2015

The global annual production capacity of Polyethylene terephthalate

(PET) in 2012 stood at over 28 million tons. Asia-Pacific held about half of the overall capacity, with China ranking first both in the region and throughout the globe. Europe and North America followed after, each accounting for around 14% of the installed capacity of PET production worldwide.

During 2004-2011, the world PET production increased from nearly 11.3 million tons to around 18.6 million tons, registering an average annual growth of over 7%. In 2012, it surpassed the 19.8 million tons mark. 

Asia accounted for the largest share of the world’s total PET production volume, harvesting more than 9.5 million tons of the polyester material. China, the US, Mexico, Taiwan and South Korea were the globe’s top five PET manufacturing countries, with a combined share of nearly 55% of the overall production; their production volume was estimated at over 10.7 million tons in 2012.

Indorama Ventures PCL, 

DAK Americas, 

M&G Group, 

Jiangsu Sanfangxiang Group Co, 

China Resources Packaging, 

JBF Industries Ltd, 

SINOPEC, Octal Holding & Co, 

Shahid Tondgooyan Petrochemical Co, 

Lotte Chemical, 

Far Eastern Textile Ltd and 

Nan Ya Plastics Corp 

are amid the dominant companies engaged in the global PET industry.

The world PET consumption was on an upward trend during 2004-2012. In 2012, it stood at over 19.8 million tons. Asia was the leading PET consumer in the world, followed by Europe and North America. The polyester fiber industry is the major end-user sector for PET – over 60% of the annual supply volume was used in this application in 2012. In the same year, Asia-Pacific was the dominant PET exporter in the world, whilst Europe imported the largest volume of PET.

The PET market is poised to experience positive growth in the upcoming years, driven by a combination of factors such as rapidly increasing global population, improving life standards worldwide, the rising demand from end users, and the upcoming launches of a variety of PET projects. In 2015, the global PET production is likely to exceed 24.39 million tons.