Rationalization across major chemical value chains continues at uneven speeds, shaped by demand contraction, persistent oversupply, and regional competitiveness challenges. While some markets have made decisive moves to address excess capacity, others continue to lag, prolonging pressure on margins and utilization rates.
Since mid-2022, downstream global demand for coatings has contracted by as much as 30 percent, while demand for adhesives has fallen by roughly 20 percent. As a result, acrylic acid and acrylate capacity utilization have hovered at or below 75 percent.
Despite these conditions, the acrylic value chain has not experienced significant reductions in monomer capacity. Instead, capacity has continued to expand, adding further pressure to an already saturated market.
Notable ramp-ups in 2025 included BASF's Zhanjiang site and Shandong Nuoer in China, as well as Indian Oil in India. The Chinese additions intensified domestic supply pressure, while the Indian project moved the country closer to self-sufficiency and reduced reliance on imports from China and the Middle East.
BASF Zhanjiang includes a 400 ktpa (thousand metric tons per year) butyl acrylate plant and a 100 ktpa 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (2-EHA) unit, which together would require approximately 260 ktpa of acrylic acid at full utilization. Shandong Nuoer operates a 160 ktpa refined acrylic acid plant. Tianjin Bohai Chemical's 160 ktpa unit is scheduled for a trial run by the end of the year or early 2026.
Indian Oil's butyl acrylate unit at the Gujarat Refinery Complex in Dumad (Vadodara) has an annual capacity of 150 ktpa, equivalent to around 84 ktpa of acrylic acid.
In Southeast Asia, Nippon Shokubai expanded its Indonesian acrylic acid plant by 100 ktpa to a total of 240 ktpa in 2023. Placing this additional volume has been difficult amid the downturn, prompting the company to expand superabsorbent polymer (SAP) production at the site to 140 ktpa, with the new SAP plant scheduled for commercial operation in July 2027.
Europe's annual exports of superabsorbent and acrylic polymers have contracted by 32.4 percent since 2022 due to the downturn and intensifying global competition, further weakening European acrylic acid utilization on top of soft ester demand. At the same time, competition has eroded margins even as the industry has kept the arbitrage window for Asian imports effectively closed.
The methyl methacrylate (MMA) market is undergoing a significant transition as producers shift toward more cost-effective technologies amid persistent low profits and oversupply.
Japan's Asahi Kasei has decided to permanently close its 100 ktpa C4-process MMA plant in Kawasaki in 2026.
Trinseo exited European MMA production by shutting its 90 ktpa MMA plant in Rho, Italy, in late 2025. This reduced Europe's total merchant MMA capacity to below 200 ktpa, counting only the non-polymer-integrated portion of Roehm's plants in Worms (225 ktpa) and Wesseling (95 ktpa), Germany. This followed Mitsubishi Chemical's closure of its 200 ktpa Cassel, UK, MMA site in 2023, positioning Roehm as the clear regional leader.
Roehm inaugurated its LiMA world-scale MMA plant in Bay City, Texas, in March 2025. This marked the first commercial-scale deployment of its ethylene-based LiMA process, with 250 ktpa of nameplate capacity. The move resulted in a structured regional supply increase of approximately 90 ktpa after Roehm discontinued its 160 ktpa acetone-cyanohydrin (ACH)–based unit in Westwego, Louisiana, in mid-2025.
Sumitomo Chemical closed two out of three production lines for MMA monomer and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) at its Singapore subsidiary by September 2024, cutting capacity by about 80 percent. Remaining capacity stands at 53 ktpa for MMA and 50 ktpa for PMMA.
The world's largest MMA producer, the Mitsubishi Group, ceased monomer production at its Hiroshima (Otake City) plant in July 2024. The site operated on the ACH process with a capacity of 107 ktpa. Upstream acrylonitrile and derivatives production at the location was also stopped.
The acrylic fiber manufacturing footprint has now disappeared from the European Union. SGL Group permanently closed the region's only acrylic fiber plant due to its uncompetitiveness. Production at Lavradio, Portugal, ceased in June 2025, with full decommissioning scheduled for completion by the end of 2026.
In the United States, downstream pressure has also weighed on polyamide fiber manufacturing. Shaw Industries idled nylon- and polyester-consuming lines at one of its Dalton, Georgia, plants through November 2024.
Ascend Performance Materials closed its Greenwood, South Carolina, unit by early 2025. Polyamide 66 industrial yarn spinning was discontinued in 2024, and the remaining textile and carpet yarn capacity is scheduled to shut down.
ResourceWise estimates that recently announced European cracker closures will eliminate approximately 575 ktpa of annual butadiene capacity.
Including ExxonMobil's closure of the Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon cracker in France in 2023 brings the total loss to 298 ktpa. Versalis's Italian units, initially slated for permanent closure in 2029, have already been shut down, representing 110 ktpa.
Total and Dow will close their units in Antwerp, Belgium, and Bohlen, Germany, respectively, by the end of 2027. Their combined butadiene capacity totals 130,000 tonnes per annum (ktpa).
ExxonMobil's Mossmorran, UK, cracker will close in February 2026, resulting in the removal of approximately 275 ktpa of butadiene capacity. These developments are expected to significantly curb European export availability to Asia and may support regional rebalancing.
Since 2021, China has more than doubled its acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) nameplate capacity. Capacity rose from 4.12 million metric tons per year in 2021 (including partial capacity from a new producer that started up that year) to 9.99 million metric tons per year in 2025 (including partial capacity from new producers starting up in 2025). Additional ABS capacity in China is expected to come online in the coming years, which would further exacerbate oversupply, although some new projects may ultimately be canceled. Current ABS capacity in China remains significantly underutilized.
In the United States, the ABS manufacturing footprint has shifted. INEOS permanently closed its 170 ktpa ABS production site in Addyston, Ohio, in the second quarter of 2025, transferring all ABS production to its Altamira, Mexico, facility.
While this appears to reflect a nominal 100 ktpa decline in domestic nameplate capacity, market sources indicate that the actual supply reduction may be limited to low double-digit kiloton volumes due to prior utilization levels.
Cornerstone Chemical Company mothballed its 370 ktpa acrylonitrile plant in Waggaman, Louisiana, effective June 30, 2025. The decision followed an evaluation of structurally oversupplied global market conditions and was framed as necessary to ensure the long-term viability of the company's Energy Park. The facility represented 22.7 percent of total U.S. acrylonitrile capacity.
Regional consumption and exports have been declining. INEOS Styrolution's ABS site closure in Addyston in the second quarter of 2025 reduced domestic acrylonitrile demand by about 34,000 tpa. U.S. acrylonitrile exports nearly halved to 127,000 tons in 2024 from 239,000 tons in 2023.
In Southeast Asia, PTTAC—a 50–50 joint venture between Asahi Kasei and PTT Global Chemical—discontinued operations and decommissioned its plants in Thailand. The site had a 200 ktpa acrylonitrile capacity and a 70 ktpa MMA capacity. Production ceased on October 31, 2024, with sales ending by December 31, 2024. Deconstruction is planned between 2025 and 2028.
In China, Jiangsu Sailboat commenced production on its No. 4 acrylonitrile line (260 ktpa) in December 2023 but shut down its equally sized No. 3 unit due to unfavorable market conditions.
In July 2023, CF Fertilisers announced a proposal to permanently close the ammonia plant at its Billingham Complex in the United Kingdom. The site had been temporarily idled in August 2022 and later resumed operation, utilizing imported ammonia for ammonium nitrate and nitric acid production. The shutdown removed what had been the UK's largest domestic ammonia facility, with a capacity of approximately 230 ktpa.
As part of broader restructuring at Ludwigshafen, BASF closed the smaller of its two ammonia plants and related fertilizer facilities in early 2023.