Refinery Catalyst Industry Market Development Status and Forecast

The rapid increase in fuel demand in emerging markets, coupled with increasingly stringent fuel sulfur requirements worldwide, is stimulating continued growth in refining catalyst demand. The new demand is mainly from new refinery units in Asia and the Middle East. As catalysts are a key factor in refinery profitability, new technologies regarding catalysts are popular.

The new demand in the global refining catalyst market in recent years is mainly from new refinery units in Asia and the Middle East. The Middle East will be one of the regions leading the global refining catalyst demand growth. Refining capacity in Europe is stabilizing and the market is approaching a balanced supply and demand. North America will continue to export fuel to Latin America and Europe due to its feedstock advantage and more profitable refining, thus compensating for the declining demand for U.S. domestic fuel, which will support refining catalyst demand in the region.

The demand for refining catalysts has been increasing both domestically and internationally in recent years, and is increasing rapidly in China. China is gradually aligning itself with Europe and the U.S. in terms of emission standards, and the pace of advancing the process of low sulfurization of oil products is increasing. The imminent implementation of the national V standard for automotive gasoline and diesel fuel has put forward higher production standards for China's oil refiners. The demand for refining catalysts has increased rapidly due to the increasingly stringent fuel cleanliness standards.

China's refining catalysts mainly include hydrotreating catalysts, hydrocracking catalysts, catalytic cracking catalysts, reforming catalysts, alkylation catalysts, etc. The most used catalyst is hydrotreating catalyst, accounting for about 50% of the total refining catalyst consumption; followed by catalytic cracking catalyst, accounting for nearly 40% of the total consumption. The demand for refining catalysts in China is predicted to reach USD 1.2 billion in 2017, and the market for refining catalysts as well as R&D and production prospects are quite promising.

The global refining catalyst market will grow at an average annual rate of 3.6% in the coming years and will reach USD 4.7 billion by 2020. Refining catalysts include catalysts for fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC), hydrotreating, alkylation, reforming, and other applications. While global refining catalyst demand will experience healthy growth in all applications, FCC catalyst demand will grow at the fastest rate and FCC catalysts will remain the largest refining catalyst market in terms of market value.