WP Report
Methanol
This World Petrochemical (WP) report on Methanol contains complete global and country supply/demand balances for the base year, the past five years and five and ten year projections. The complete report including the analyses and supply/demand tables contains approximately 265 pages. There is also a table showing all global producers, their locations, and capacities (current, historical and future) to produce Methanol, as well as capacities for derivative products.
Published January 2011
Abstract
Global production and consumption of methanol in 2010 were about 49 million and 48 million metric tons, respectively. Global capacity utilization dropped from 66% in 2009 to 62% in 2010 due to a large amount of capacity expansion. Methanol consumption is estimated to have increased by almost 12% in 2010; demand is projected to average growth of almost 9.8% per year from 2010 to 2015, and 5.8% per year from 2015 to 2020. As a result of considerable capacity additions (even with large consumption growth rates), average global utilization rates are expected to be in the 50s range in 2010-2013, reaching the high 70s by 2020.
Formaldehyde is the single largest consumer of methanol in the world, accounting for around 27% of global demand (in 2010). MTBE accounts for approximately 11% of world methanol consumption, and acetic acid represents around 10% of total demand. Other applications for methanol include direct fuel uses, chloromethanes, solvent uses, methylamines and methyl methacrylate.
The following pie chart shows world consumption of methanol by end use:
