Demand & Supply

There will be a stable growth in methanol demand for “traditional” chemical intermediate application, such as formaldehyde, at a similar rate as the world economic growth. On the other hand, MTO and energy applications are expected to lead the growth of the world methanol demand. It is estimated that the demand for MTO will reach 37 million ton per annum and this for energy application will be 22 million ton in 2021. Region-wise, the demand will be driven by China and, though the volume is relatively smaller, India and South East Asian countries will also contribute to the increase of the demand.

Because of their population and economic magnitude, the methanol demand in China is extremely large, and furthermore, as above mentioned, methanol use for gasoline blending, MTO and DME are heavily concentrated in China. Therefore, the demand in China made up of a majority of the total methanol demand in the world. Almost of the demand is covered by the domestic plants, which are located inland China and producing methanol from coal. Inadequate supply in the coastal area is contributed by the import cargos, since the inland coal based methanol plants has logistic disadvantage to deliver products to the coastal area to meet their demand.

Far East Asia including China, Europe and North America are the main methanol net-import regions supplied by Middle East, South America and other regions. Import volume in Far East area of 10 million ton consists of 5 million ton by China and the rest amount by Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Although the importing volume of these 3 counties are not so much compare to the total demand in the world, those have a profound impact on the methanol trade flow.