6. Main development trends

6.1 Towards mass production

Over the last 20 years, polyethylene has gone from being a specialty material to a commodity product. With the growth in volumes from new production units, two trends are confirmed:

• a reduction in fixed manufacturing costs;

• on the other hand, increasing standardization.

Today, there are even stock exchange listings for certain types of PE-BDL, for example on the London Metal Exchange (LME).

Another development accentuates this standardization and the need for competitive production. This is the growing use of ethane from the Middle East. Ethane, a by-product of oil and gas production with no commercial value in this...