illuminating the marketsPetrochemicals

Argus 2017 Hydrocarbon Resin Annual

Summary

Market ReportingConsulting

Events

Late 2016 and early 2017 have been marked by a large number of capacity addition announce-ments of hydrogenated hydrocarbon resins (HHCR). While some expansions are follow-ups to previously announced – although delayed projects – there are a number of notable new entries into the market, like Jinhai, Zeon and Rütgers. With continued economic downturn and stabilized crude, naphtha and gasoline prices, there is more incentive for producers to upgrade the value of their molecules and expand downstream.

The shale gas revolution in North America has made abundant and cheap gas available to the market. North American ethylene units began to switch to gas feeds in early 2008, and this trend continues to this day. Ethylene producers that did not have the flexibility to switch to gas feeds immediately quickly invested in the facilities that enabled them to run lighter feeds. Producers that were already flexible invested to expand capacity to utilize cheaper gas feeds. The reduction of liquid cracking directly correlates to a similar reduction in monomers used to produce tacki�ers and isoprene (for SIS).

For years North America has had an abundance of raw materials for adhesives and sealants, tapes and labels, inks and others, based on a relatively heavy cracking slate. As a consequence of the shale exploration revolution, there has been a signi�cant reduction in feed supply to make the resins and polymers. The signi�cance of the reduction has been masked by various economic downturns, but in general has limited feedstock availability. By 2015, North America had increased its dependency on imports from Asia-Paci�c and became a net importer of key mono-mers needed to produce resins and polymers. In addition, we are seeing an increase in resin and polymer imports into North America, mainly from Asia-Paci�c.

This report presents a global and regional view of the hydrocarbon resin business for 2016 and what we can expect in 2017. It covers feedstock supplier capability, and competitive and co-prod-uct materials outlooks. This annual explains the key drivers behind greatly increased feed supply availability, the regional economic factors that influence supply and demand and the importance of raw materials supplied from Asia-Paci�c.

Section 1: Executive summary…………….........................................page 13Section 2: Status of hydrocarbon resin business……..................... page 19

. page 29Section 4: Worldwide hydrocarbon resin sales……........................page 59Section 5: Resin market………....................................................... page 71Section 6: Resin oil feedstock…...................................................page 85Section 7: Competitive products…..............................................page 116Section 8: Technology…............................................................. page 131Section 9: Hot-melt polymers……….............................................page 165Section 10: Hydrocarbon resin supply and demand forecast ….....page 183

For more information about Argus 2017 Hydrocarbon Resin Annual, please contact us at +44 (0) 20 7780 4200 or info@argusmedia.com.

Argus 2017 Hydrocarbon Resin Annual

Key Findings

Key Features

Table of Contents

Trademark notice:ARGUS, the ARGUS logo, ARGUS MEDIA, ARGUS DIRECT, ARGUS OPEN MARKETS, AOM, FMB, JIM JORDAN & ASSOCIATES, JJ&A, FUNDALYTICS, METAL-PAGES, METALPRICES.COM, Argus publication titles and Argus index names are trademarks of Argus Media Limited.

argusmedia.com/consulting

For 2017, Argus expects the following trends to a�ect the HCR and related monomers and polymers businesses:

• Demand will be driven by GDP for most of the relevant market segments.• Europe and the Americas will continue to be net importers of monomers and polymers, mainly from Asia-Paci�c.• Asia-Paci�c monomer and tacki�er producers will continue to expand to �ll the gaps in demand from consumers in Europe and the Americas.• The C9 tacki�er market will remain balanced on a global basis, but will start to tighten up as reduced demand from the ink industry is o�set by continued reduction in production capacity.• Higher average crude, naphtha and gasoline prices in 2017 versus 2016 will force resin manufacturers to keep trying to raise prices against so� demand. • Until HHCR capacity increases in the second half of 2017, and early 2018, HHCR supply will tighten as demand increases to seed the market. • Starting in 4Q 2017, higher supply of HHCR is expected to drive prices down, leading to increased demand for HHCR as substitutes for C5 and rosin ester resins to upgrade formulated products.• Sustained high gum rosin prices will continue to drive demand for C9, C5 and tall oil rosin (TOR)-based tacki�er business in China.

Argus continues to provide detailed analysis and explanations regarding global and regional hydrocarbon resin (HCR) markets through:

• Global tacki�er capacity, production and operating rates.• Hydrocarbon resin sales by region.• Review of competitive technologies resins and their e�ect on hydrocarbon tacki�ers.• Analysis of ethylene crackers which provide crude C5 feedstock for monomer (isoprene, piperylenes and DCPD) production.• Analysis of polymer markets used in Hot Melt adhesive formulations.• Changes in technology which e�ect monomer and polymer production for adhesive formulations.