China and India are set to add over 3 mln tons of new PE capacity over the next 18 months. Most of the new capacities in China are set to come on-line before the end of this year, while India's new capacity additions are set to come on-line in 2013.

Daqing Petrochemical, a subsidiary of CNPC, is expected to start up two new PE production lines, an LLDPE line with a capacity of 250,000 tpa and an HDPE line with a capacity of 300,000 tpa, by late August or early September. Fushun Petrochemical is reportedly planning to start up a new PE plant at the end of 2012. The plant had originally been expected to start up in June but the start up has been delayed until the end of the year. Fushun's new plant will have annual production capacities of 350,000 tpa of HDPE and 450,000 tpa of LLDPE. Qilu Petrochemical is planning to start up a new 250,000 tpa HDPE line at the beginning of 2013. No definite start up date has been announced yet, but sources reported that the plant will most likely start up in the first quarter.

In India, OPaL and Gail are planning to add more than 1.5 mln tpa of new PE capacities in 2013 while Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Ltd (BCPL) will add another 220,000 tpa of PE capacity next year. BCPL's new 220,000 tpa PE plant is scheduled to start up in July 2013 as part of the Assam Gas Cracker Project. OPaL is planning to start up its new 1.1 mln tpa PE plant by October of 2013 while Gail's new 450,000 tpa LLDPE/HDPE swing plant is due to come on-line by the end of 2013.