According to Platts Energy Advisory Network March 27, Ed Dineen, chief executive of TPC Group, said on Tuesday that major olefin expansion projects in the US Gulf Coast region will have a significant impact on global butadiene trade flows. It may be that there is a balance between supply and demand or even oversupply, while the European market may tend to be in tight supply.
At the meeting of the American Association of Fuels and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), Dineen told Poole Global Platts Energy Consulting: 'The US will add 18 million tons of ethylene per year to this year's expansion of ethylene cracker, even if it is a byproduct. The butadiene yield is only 3%, and the new butadiene supply is also a very considerable number. We think this will change the fundamentals of the global butadiene market.