Home > Bulk & Specialty Chemicals > Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM) Market
Vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) market will exhibit notable expansion between 2022 and 2028 owing to the significant advancements in the construction sector worldwide. The growing usage of landfill liners and the robust expansion of the piping, and food & chemical processing verticals has resulted in a surged number of industrial activities.
Vinyl chloride monomer is widely employed to produce copolymer resins, that are used in the building and construction sectors. It is mainly a colorless and flammable vital chemical intermediate mostly utilized for manufacturing polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resins. Higher application scope in the agriculture, health care, and electricals will positively influence the market propulsion.
However, factors like technological barriers, fluctuating raw material prices, insufficiency of end-use industries diversification along with the rising issues pertaining to carbon emission and global warming may obstruct the market expansion to some extent.
Based on raw materials, the Vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) market revenue from the ethylene segment is set to witness appreciable gains. This can be ascribed to the growing production of the product through the thermal cracking of ethylene dichloride. Ethylene oxychlorination is one of key technologies deployed in the VCM production for closing the chlorine loop via HCl consumption that is released from the former cracking step. The growing popularity of PVC will also positively impact the segment growth.
In terms of application, the Vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) market share from the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) segment is expected to grow substantially with growing utility in floorings, pipe & fittings, cable & wires, windows, floorings, and tubes. On account of its versatility, PVC is widely used in the health care, building and construction, electronics, and automobile sectors to cater to various purposes.
Geographically, Asia Pacific is expected to account for a major chunk of the Vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) market owing to the fast-growing end-use industries and the rising instances of huge production in the region. It has been estimated that China, among Asia, has three planned as well as one announced chloride capacity, that has a total capacity of over 2.31 mtpa by 2025. The rapid rate of industrialization and the growing capital expenditure have made way for the higher number of construction activities. The increasing consumption of the product, mainly in China and India on account of emerging economies will play a key role in the market development.
Global participants in the Vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) market include LG Chem (LG Corp), Georgia Gulf Corporation (Westlake Chemical), Reliance Industries, Formosa Plastics Group, Qatar Vinyl Company Petroquimica Innovay, Nova Chemical (Mubadala Investment Company), Jubail Chevron Phillips, Lyondellbasell Industries, Occidental Chemical Corporation (Occidental Petroleum), DowDupont, AGC Chemicals (AGC Inc.), Bayer, Ineos Styrolution (INEOS AG), Axiall (Westlake Chemical), and BASF.
These firms are constantly taking up persistent efforts, including capacity expansions and novel product launches for increased production. They are also working towards partnership-oriented strategies, like acquisitions, and mergers to generate multiplied revenue sales.
For instance, in March 2020, Formosa Petrochemical-owned Formosa Plastics USA, had two major turnarounds at its PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plant and an upstream VCM (vinyl chloride monomer) facility at the firm’s Point Comfort complex.
In another instance, in February 2020, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) announced its plans of expanding its petrochemical and downstream manufacturing unit, Dahej Manufacturing Division (DMD). This move is geared towards ramping up the production of Ethylene Dichloride (EDC), which is used as a raw material in the generation of VCM.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought significant global economic turmoil considering the emergence of the nationwide lockdowns. Its effects were also felt on the vinyl chloride monomers business on account of the stalled activities across the electrical & electronics, and the agriculture sector. The building & construction industry majorly suffered during the initial days of the outbreak due to the dearth of raw materials and labor. However, as most of the industrial sectors are back to full-fledged operations, the market share is now expected to grow at a robust pace.