Methanol supply has always remained on top of discussion in the Asian market. The major consumers of Methanol in Asia are India and China. On other side China is again one of the leading manufacturers of Methanol. In India the majority of is imported from Iran and China. The central government of India has taken an important decision of using Methanol as fuel. This will turn help to reduce pollution. With more demand for methanol the government will have to focus on continuous supply of chemical in the year 2018.
There has been hike in the production levels and consumption of methanol in China in the year 2017. Mingshui Dahua, Hualu Hengsheng and Zhongtian Hechuang are some of the units started their new methanol production plants in 2017. However, the supply remained tight every now and then, as demand grew considerably. On the one hand the consumption of methanol as a fuel alternative expanded under environmental protection policies. At present Chinese government is focusing more on environmental policies and pollution control action plans. The government asked users to switch from coal to gas for heating. In residential sector, boiler with methanol as fuel was first used in catering industry in Shandong, Hebei and Henan Provinces. Now the boiler got more popularized and the demand grew stronger with methanol used as household heating fuel by some homes in North China. In industrial sector, the application of methanol as boiler fuel increased as well, with some factories switching from coal to methanol. As a result demand has increased by many folds in last one year.
To cater this ongoing demand the production need to be increased. total amount of 4 million mt/yr of fresh capacity is expected to be added, which means a steady growth rate of 5% for 2018. The domestic supply is likely to increase as more plants are in line for production in year 2018.
To summarize the methanol market, there has been increase in demand and supply. If this balance is maintained well then market will remain in equilibrium.
