Dangote’s New Polypropylene Plant Starts Production

Dangote Petrochemical in a recent announcement said that the company’s USD 2 billion petrochemicals plant located in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State which is designed to produce 77 grades of high performance Polypropylene has started producing Polypropylene. 

The plant has a production capacity of around 900000 tonnes per year. The plant is strategically situated to cater to the demand of increasing number of plastic processing downstream industries both in Africa and globally. 

The plant will also be producing Polyethylene in the nearest future. The plant will be the biggest in Africa with the highest production capacity for Polypropylene. 

The proposed capacity addition of Polypropylene will increase the supply of Polypropylene in Africa and Middle East region. This is expected to result in stabilization of the prices which have been increasing since June 2021 in the region. 

Polypropylene is a thermoplastic polymer having various applications including packaging, automotive, building and construction, healthcare, and electronics. Polypropylene is produced by polymerization of Propylene. Global demand for Polypropylene stood at around 90 million tonnes in 2020 and the demand is expected to grow at a healthy CAGR of 5.6%. 

As per ChemAnalyst, “Dangote’s petrochemical unit which has started production recently will help in releasing the supply pressure in the Middle East and Africa region for Polypropylene. The project is aimed at capturing the increasing demand for Polypropylene which is increasing due to increasing demand for packaging and automobiles.”