The petrochemicals and chemicals production capacity of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is expected to rise to 191.2 million tons by 2020, which would be a whopping 50 percent rise over last year’s capacity of 127.8 million tons, the Gulf Petrochemicals & Chemicals Association (GPCA) mentioned in its annual review of its petrochemical and chemicals database.
The growth expectations are mainly based on Saudi Arabia, whose petrochemical capacity is likely to grow by about 40.6 million tons by 2020. In addition, Qatar and UAE are also likely to add 10 million tons and 8.3 million tons, respectively, to their existing capacities. GPCA has extended the database for four more years to cover period from 2005 to 2020, so as to provide all producers, researchers, policy makers and all other industry stakeholders an enhanced insight into the industry’s future.
The database provides details like historical capacity, output and import-export statistics based on product, country and company for the period from 2005 to 2020. Also, with a 297 percent rise in its product coverage, the number of products covered in the database has now increased to 119. According to GPCA Secretary General, Dr. Abdulwahab Al Sadoun, the said database is of vital importance for all industry stakeholders for assessing the region’s petrochemical and chemical industry’s overall health. Based on this database, the stakeholders would be able to identify growth areas and cash in on the several opportunities that the sector extends in future.
The data compiled on the basis of information provided by more than 100 Gulf companies, has been verified on an independent basis. As first ever trade association of Gulf, GPCA was formed in March 2006 and today, it is the biggest body representing Middle East’s downstream petrochemical and chemical industry. GPCA now has 204 members representing 30 countries, including the Arab world and other multinational conglomerates. The GCC includes six countries, namely, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
