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PVC Market in the Middle East

The market for PVC in North America and Western Europe is mature and over the last few years has contracted as a result of the recession and the decline in the construction and automotive sectors. This contrasts with its performance in China, the rest of Asia and Russia, where it has continued to expand as a result of the growth in the construction and manufacturing sectors. The position in the Middle East is intermediate as the following analysis shows.

The countries of North Africa and the Middle East are very diverse. They range from the richest country in the world, Qatar, to some of the poorest, the Yemen and Iraq. Similiarly they vary in size from the very small, such as Qatar and Bahrain to Egypt, Iran and Turkey with populations of >70m people. Algeria, Iraq, Moracco and Saudi Arabia have intermediate populations. But they are are developing countries with growing populations, a large proportion of whom are less than 25 years old and it is this which is fueling the growth of the PVC sector.

The situation in 2010 is summarised in the attached table, which was compiled by Chemical Associates using their own data, along with that from the IMF and UN.

To view high quality pdf version of this table click here

Few countries manufacture their own PVC. There are plants in Turkey, Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia. There are smaller plants in Algeria, Libya, Morocco. Because of the high demand, and to a lesser extent the need for speciality grades of PVC, all countries import PVC. Much of the PVC is imported from the USA and to a lesser extent Europe. The countries facing the Indian Ocean and Asia, also import from China, Thailand, Korea and Japan. China is becoming an increasingly important source of PVC as it rapidly expands its manufacturing capability. As a consequence countries such as Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Algeria and Morocco are increasing their manufacturing capability, although as in India, availability of vinyl chlorode mononer (VCM) is a restraining influence. Five years ago, Saudi Arabia, announced their intention to increase their PVC capacity but so far have not done so, prefering to expand their polyolefins capacity instead.

One of the biggest uses for PVC is in construction as these countries develop their infrastructure, industries and agriculture. The major users of PVC tend to be the countries with the large and growing populations, Eqypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and surprisingly tiny UAE. The UAE is a major manufacturing centre and has experienced massive growth over the last few years. The major regional exporter of PVC is Saudi Arabia with its large suspension and emulsion PVC Plants. Large internal demand in Egypt and Turkey, restricts the availability of their PVC for export.

A good understanding of the industry, knowledge of the region and analysis of available data enables the dynamics of the industry to be determined.

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