Affected by the two newly-built units in Malaysia and China that will soon be commercialized, Asia ’s methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) supply will be further oversupplied by 2020.

A new 750,000 t / y MTBE unit at PRefChem, located in Johor, Malaysia, is currently undergoing trial operation, and a 150,000 t / a MTBE unit at Zhejiang Petrochemical is also undergoing trial operation. It is expected that these two units will produce qualified products by January 2020 at the latest.

  Once the 300,000 barrels / day integrated refinery and petrochemical plant in Johor, Malaysia is running at full capacity, the country will become an exporter of MTBE and high-octane gasoline products. At the same time, the products of Zhejiang Petrochemical MTBE unit are also likely to be used for export because the local gasoline market has overcapacity, and the unit is in a convenient location for export. A Chinese manufacturer predicts that China's MTBE exports in 2020 will double from 2019, reaching more than 300,000 tons.

BEMTBE is an additive used to increase the octane number of gasoline. MTBE demand from the gasoline market may be supported by the upgrade of gasoline standards and the implementation of the new maritime sulfur regulations of marine fuels by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2020.

At the same time, as 2020 is a crucial year for China to enforce E10 ethanol fuel, market participants will also pay close attention to the implementation of E10 fuel. E10 fuel refers to gasoline mixed with 10% ethanol. Ethanol will completely replace MTBE as the oxygen-containing additive allowed in gasoline.

Amid concerns about further slowing economic growth and declining motor vehicle sales, Chinese MTBE producers are paying attention to 2020 export contracts to rebalance the domestic market. Benefiting from the commissioning of new capacity, importers outside China signed regular contracts based on cost and freight (CFR) at a lower price, which was 3 to 5 dollars lower per ton than the 2019 level.