Thailand Petrochemicals Report Q2 2011: New research report available at Fast Market Research

March 30, 2011 - PRLog -- BMI's latest Thailand Petrochemicals Report predicts a more challenging export environment will limit the industry's growth in 2011, despite planned rises in capacity.

GDP growth is set to fall from 7.5% in 2010 to 3.6% in 2011 largely as a result of an expected slowdown in external demand. On the upside, there is an improving domestic market with record low unemployment and an improving political situation, although private consumption growth is likely to fall from 6.5% in 2010 to 5.5% in 2011, which could mean that the country may not be able to offset the losses in exports. In turn, annual industrial growth is set to fall from 6.0% in 2010 to 4.5% from 2011. A period of inventory building, which helped drive growth in 2010, has also ended. Going into 2011, we believe inventory restocking will moderate on the back of cooling demand for Thai exports. As such, petrochemicals growth may face considerable headwinds in 2011 in the event that inventory restocking begins to turn negative.

BMI believes Thai olefins producers are productive and competitive enough to deal with the challenges ahead. Generally, Thailand's polymer manufacturing industry enjoys high operating rates, with production consistently at 90% of capacity and exports performing strongly, although this is dependent on export demand, with the domestic market too small to soak up output. In BMI's Asia Petrochemicals Business Environment Rankings matrix, Thailand scores 67.3 points, up 0.4 points due to a broad-based improvement in country risks. It is in sixth place, 5.6 points behind Taiwan and 3.7 points ahead of Malaysia.

A slew of new plants are due to come onstream in 2011 after a court order suspending 76 industrial projects at Map Ta Phut was lifted for all but two. Many of the projects are at least a year overdue, although BMI believes it may have been difficult to operate them at full capacity if they had opened in 2010 due to volatile market conditions and the impact of Gulf-based petrochemicals expansion on Asian petrochemicals prices. Despite a strong recovery in the Thai economy, domestic petrochemicals operating rates fell to 50-60% in mid-2010 before recovery towards the end of the year. Extra capacity would merely have exacerbated the situation. The resumption of activity at Map Ta Phut has boosted investor sentiment, although any similar action in the future is bound to knock confidence further and undermine Thailand's hopes of future significant petrochemicals expansion. As a result of the court decision to give the go ahead to projects at Map Ta Phut, national energy company PTT's olefins capacity alone will increase from 1.8mn tpa to 2.8mn tpa and polymer capacity will increase from 500,000 tpa to 1.5mn tpa. Based on current petrochemicals projects, Thailand was set to see new capacities of 1.9mn tpa ethylene, 1.27mn tpa propylene, 1.45mn tpa PE and 200,000tpa benzene coming onstream by the beginning of 2011, mostly in the controversial industrial zone.

For more information or to purchase this report, go to:
-  http://www.fastmr.com/prod/128809_thailand_petrochemicals...


Report Table of Contents:

SWOT Analysis
- Thailand Petrochemicals Industry SWOT
- Thailand Political SWOT
- Thailand Economic SWOT
- Thailand Business Environment SWOT
Global Overview
- Petrochemicals Market Overview
- Financial Results
- Global Oil Products Price Outlook
- Table: Oil Product Price Assumptions, Q410-Q411 (US$/bbl)
- Table: Oil Product Price Data And Forecasts, 2008-2015 (US$/bbl)
Emerging Asia Petrochemicals Overview
- Table: Asian Ethylene Projects
Thailand Market Overview
- Table: Thailand's Petrochemicals Sector - Cracker Data, 2009-2015 ('000tpa)
- Market Evolution
Industry Trends And Developments
- Table: Thailand's Petrochemical Projects
- Political Risk And The Petrochemicals Industry
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Latest Developments
- Olefins
- Table: Thailand's Petrochemicals Sector - Ethylene Capacity (tpa)
- Aromatics
- Table: Thailand's Petrochemicals Sector - Aromatics Capacity (tpa)
- Polymers
- Table: Thailand's Petrochemicals Sector - Polyethylene Capacity (tpa)
- Table: Thailand's Petrochemicals Sector - Polypropylene Capacity (tpa)
- Table: Thailand's Petrochemicals Sector - Polyvinyl Chloride Capacity (tpa)
- Table: Thailand Petrochemicals Sector - Polystyrene Capacity
- Financial Results
Petrochemicals Business Environment Ratings
- Table: Asia Pacific Petrochemicals Business Environment Ratings
Forecast Scenario
- Petrochemicals Forecasts
- Table: Thailand's Petrochemicals Sector, 2007-2015 ('000 tpa, unless otherwise stated)
- Macroeconomic Outlook
- Table: Thailand - Economic Activity, 2006-2015
Company Monitor
- Indorama Polymers Public Company Limited (IRP PCL)
- Integrated Refinery and Petrochemicals Company (IRPC)
- PTT Aromatics and Refining (PTTAR)
- PTT Chemical (PTTC)
- PTT Public Company
- Shell
- Siam Cement/Cementhai Chemicals Company (CCC)
Glossary Of Terms
- Table: Glossary Of Petrochemicals Terms
BMI Methodology
- How We Generate Our Industry Forecasts
- Chemicals and Petrochemicals Industry
- Cross Checks
- Business Environment Ratings
- Table: Petrochemicals Business Environment Indicators And Rationale
- Weighting
- Table: Weighting Of Indicators

About Business Monitor International

Business Monitor International (BMI) offers a comprehensive range of products and services designed to help senior executives, analysts and researchers assess and better manage operating risks, and exploit business opportunities, across 175 markets.  BMI offers three main areas of expertise: Country Risk BMI's country risk and macroeconomic forecast portfolio includes weekly financial market reports, monthly regional Monitors, and in-depth quarterly Business Forecast Reports.  Industry Analysis BMI covers a total of 17 industry verticals through a portfolio of services, including in-depth quarterly Country Forecast Reports.  View more research from Business Monitor International at http://www.fastmr.com/catalog/publishers.aspx?pubid=1010

About Fast Market Research

Fast Market Research is an online aggregator and distributor of market research and business information. We represent the world's top research publishers and analysts and provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available.

For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at http://www.fastmr.com or call us at 1.800.844.8156.

# # #

Fast Market Research is an online aggregator and distributor of market research and business information. We represent the world's top research publishers and analysts and provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available.