Global Acetic Acid capacity is poised to see considerable growth over the next five years, potentially increasing from 17.90 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) in 2018 to 21.66 mtpa in 2023, registering total growth of 21%, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s latest report, ‘Global Acetic Acid Industry Outlook to 2023 – Capacity and Capital Expenditure Forecasts with Details of All Active and Planned Plants’, states that around nine planned and announced plants are slated to come online primarily in Asia by 2023.

Dayanand Kharade, Oil & Gas Analyst at GlobalData, comments, “Globally, Methanol Carbonylation is the dominant production process used for Acetic Acid production. In 2018, it accounted for 82.6% of the installed Acetic Acid capacity of 17.90 mtpa. It is followed by Acetaldehyde Oxidation, Ethanol Oxidation, Ethylene Oxidation and Ethanol-aldehyde process which accounted for 2.6%, 1.4%, 0.9%, and 0.4%, respectively, of the total installed Acetic Acid capacity in the region. Others account for 12.1% of the total Acetic Acid capacity for the period.”

Among regions, the Middle East leads with the largest capacity additions from the upcoming Acetic Acid plants by 2023. For the upcoming new-build plants, the region is expected to add a capacity of 1.30 mtpa from two planned and announced plants. There will be no expansion of existing plants by 2023.