Think Tank: Europe petrochemicals face ‘winter of discontent’

Europe’s petrochemical sector faces a ‘winter of discontent’, battered by high energy costs, collapsing downstream demand and increased imports from Asia. -          High energy prices hurt production economics-          Downstream demand collapsing in some sectors-          Demand will be -3% for Europe polymers in H2 compared with H1-          September pick up in demand has been weak-          New projects due onstream in Asia will add to global oversupply-          Global PE capacity forecast to rise 6% year-on-year in 2022, 5% in 2023-          China PE demand expected to fall in 2022-          China imports less PE, re-exports more to Europe-          Russia H1 PE exports to Europe rose 20% compared to H2 2021-          Chemical company earnings will be squeezed