According to TABNI Dubai, the world's annual ethylene production capacity will increase substantially by 2024, which is likely to increase from 1915.4 million tons in 2019 to 283.22 million tons in 2024, a total increase of 48%.

According to GlobalData, a leading GlobalData and analytics firm, Asia is set to lead global ethylene capacity growth of all regions, with annual ethylene capacity in the region expected to increase from 70.91 million tons in 2019 to 124.5 million tons in 2024, with an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 10.6%.

The global Ethylene Industry Outlook to 2024 - Production capacity and capital expenditure projections, including details of all existing and planned new vinyl plants - released by GlobalData shows that by 2024, about 123 planned and announced vinyl plants will come on stream, mainly in Asia.

In Asia, China will add 27.48 million tons of ethylene capacity annually by 2024. China's contribution to new ethylene capacity in Asia is about 59.9%, mainly from ExxonMobil's Zhoushan vinyl plant and ExxonMobil's Huizhou Vinyl Plant phase 1 in China, which will add 1.8 million tons and 1.6 million tons of ethylene capacity by 2024, respectively.

"Asia will dominate the global ethylene market, mainly due to the number of new projects and absolute capacity additions in China," said Dayanand Kharade, oil and gas analyst at GlobalData. By 2024, China will have about 33 ethylene projects under construction."

GlobalData determined that India will be the second largest country in Asia in terms of new ethylene capacity, with annual ethylene capacity increasing from 7.38 million tons in 2019 to 14.33 million tons by 2024, and its AAGR at 13.3%. The main increase in ethylene capacity will come from Nayala Energy's Vadinar vinyl plant, which will have an annual ethylene capacity of 1.8 million tons by 2024.

South Korea is set to become the third largest new ethylene producer in the Asia-Pacific region, with annual production capacity rising from 9.95 million tonnes in 2019 to 14.13 million tonnes in 2024, with an AAGR of 7 per cent. The main additional ethylene capacity will come from S-Oil's Ulsan Phase 2 project, which will have an annual ethylene capacity of 1.5 million tons by 2024.