On April 11, the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF) issued Key Petrochemical Product Capacity Warning Report 2023, according to which supply of main petrochemical products has surged and capacity of some products (e.g. olefin, polyolefin, titanium dioxide, etc.) has remained rapid growth, both since 2021.

It is forecast that operating rates of ethylene and polyethylene units will increase in 2023, and operating rates of refining, fertilizer and methanol units will be basically the same as 2022. As for sodium carbonate, BDO and titanium dioxide producers, their operating rates will decrease due to high new capacity. Unit operating rates will fall continually at companies engaged in production of SBS, glycol, PTA, etc. Among 28 products supervised by CPCIF, 61% (or 17) saw decrease in rates of capacity utilization in 2022 and 32% (9) saw growth.