Abstract
The market for purified terephthalic acid (PTA) is not a bad place for a chemical producer to be right now. Although the recession wreaked havoc on many chemical and plastic businesses, the PTA market seems to have emerged from the latest economic downturn largely unscathed. What's more, demand for PTA, which is a key raw material for production of polyester fibers and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle resin and film, is expected to continue to grow roughly 8% per year at least until the end of the decade. As a result, producers large and small have launched a bevy of expansion projects around the world. In the Asia-Pacific region, where most of the construction is concentrated, PTA capacity will rise by roughly 5 million metric tons between 1994 and 1998, representing a whopping 81% increase, according to Mary Belton Blackburn, director of polyester raw materials at Houston-based consultants Chemical Marketing Associates Inc. (CMAI). Major producers have ...
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