London (GC Intelligence) – A wave of Polycarbonate (PC) capacity increases in China are set to hit an already weak global market. Europe’s current oversupply could get worse in 2019.
Europe is a major exporter of polycarbonate to China. The new capacity in China will mean European imports will be displaced, which could lead to a further increase in supply in Europe.
The European market is already suffering from low demand because of the ongoing economic slowdown and weak sales of the key automotive sector.
Total capacity in China is estimated at round 1m metric tons and is set to increase to around 1.5m metric tons in 2019.
During the past few years there has been an increase of projects announced to build new polycarbonate plants or expand existing ones, which could take China’s total capacity to 3.6m metric tons by 2023.
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