In 2003, China's styrene production capacity was 1.05 million tons. In 2004, the styrene installations of Maoming Petrochemical and Qilu Petrochemical completed the expansion and reconstruction. In June of this year, Shanghai Secco set up a new 50,000-ton/year styrene plant to put into operation. These capacity expansion and new installations have achieved styrene production capacity in China. 1.69 million tons/year.
The annual import volume of styrene in China has increased rapidly from 305,800 tons in 1995 to 1.587 million tons in 2004 from 1,115,500 tons in 2000. In 2004, imported styrene accounted for 74.7% of China's total domestic consumption. In 2003 and 2004, China's annual export of styrene was less than 10,000 tons. The apparent consumption of styrene in China has increased from 548,400 tons in 1995 and 1,914,000 tons in 2000 to 3.868 million tons in 2004.
China's styrene will be a long-term shortage of output and demand difference of one million tons
Some overseas media expect that the total demand for styrene in China this year is estimated to reach 4.38 million tons, with an annual output of about 2 million tons; by 2010, demand will increase to about 5.6 million tons, and output will hardly exceed 4.5 million tons. This means that the shortage of China's styrene supply is hard to change in the short term. To this end, some industry experts have called for increasing styrene production by expanding and innovating existing installations and constructing new large-capacity installations.