Promising Demand for Methanol as an Alternative Fuel in China - Drives the Asia Methanol Market
In China, methanol is majorly used for gasoline blending & combustion apart from formaldehyde and Methanol to Olefins (MTO) applications. Methanol can be produced from various feed stocks such as coal, natural gas, biomass and others. China produces methanol majorly by coal which is cheaply available.
Methanol is one of the fuel alternatives at cheaper cost. Production of methanol is less expensive when compared with gasoline and other alternatives. Methanol is used in various standards such as M100, M85, M5, M10, M15 and M50 of which M100 and M85 are the national standards in China. Methanol is less toxic compared to ethanol which supports the environment. It is cheaper than petroleum products and also relatively easy to produce.
Due to industrialization, automotive industry has a significant growth in China which leads potential demand for methanol as an alternative fuel. China is the largest manufacturer of automotive industry and it had sales of vehicle units exceeded 20 million in 2014. China imports nearly 45% of its vehicles mostly from Europe. Methanol is majorly used in gasoline blending followed by combustion application. The high demand in China invited the other nations to supply methanol at cheaper rate to meet its domestic requirement. In 2014, countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Oman exported 69% of methanol imports into China. To meet the requirement, new methanol plant projects are initiated and it would benefit the china’s growing methanol market.
