For bulk purchase of industrial grade C2H4 gas (ethylene), priority should be placed on producers having large scale production capacity, and the leading five ethylene producers (ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco, Sinopec, Dow, Shell) share 42% of the total production capacity (210 million tons of global production capacity in 2023). The $10 billion Saudi Aramco Jafurah project will add 9 million tons/year of ethane cracking capacity to ethylene when it begins operations in 2025, at a cost as low as 200 tons/ton (naphtha cracking cost $450/ ton). China Dushanzi Petrochemical adopts independent steam cracking technology, with a single unit production capacity of 1.2 million tons/year, ethylene purity ≥99.95%, and impurities (such as propyl) content ≤5 ppm to meet the demand of high-end polyethylene production.
Channel purchasing has to balance price and supply stability: The spot price of C2H4 gas (ethylene) purchased through B2B websites (e.g., Alibaba International Station) has a wide range of fluctuations (700−1,200/ ton, 2023 data), while the long-term agreement (LTA) can stabilize the price (±5680/ ton (2024 Q1), and the CIF Asia (CFR) can be as much as 890/ ton due to the increase in logistics costs. Among them, shipping costs account for 123,500/ container).
Storage and logistics plan directly affect the cost: liquid c2h4 gas (ethylene) needs to be transported and stored at -103.7℃ and 1.5 MPa, the one-way transport cost of 40-ton low-temperature tank truck is 8,000 (within the radius of 500 km), and the evaporation rate should be kept at 0.081.2 million/set. In 2022, Yeosu Park in South Korea did not use a double-layer vacuum storage tank (single-layer tank evaporation rate of 0.3%/ day), and more than 1,200 tons were lost every year, with a loss of $960,000.
Regional market conditions need to be taken into account in the decision: although the Middle East has the lowest export price for C2H4 gas (ethylene) (400−500/ t, ethane feedstock advantage), it pays 15,150 / t. Although China makes ethylene by coal-to-olefin (CTO) technology, the cost is around 750/ ton, but carbon emission intensity (2.8 tons of CO2
Ethylene/ton) is 18,085 / ton more than ethane).
Compliance and certification are the purchasing limits: ISO 17025 certified C2H4 gas (ethylene) suppliers should provide a full component analysis report (with 15 indicators, e.g., oxygen content ≤ 0.5ppm), and through the DOT 49 CFR transport certification (tank truck bursting pressure ≥2.5 times the working pressure). EU REACH law requires the content of benzopyrene in ethylene to be less than 0.1 ppb, and in 2023 a Polish exporter was fined €2.3 million and prohibited from export. In addition, the purchaser will verify the supplier’s emergency procedure (e.g., start the nitrogen inerting system within 30 minutes of the leak at an inerting rate of ≥5 m³/min) to reduce the risk of explosion (lower explosive limit of 2.7% for ethylene).
E-procurement platforms are transforming the business: through platforms such as SAP Ariba, companies are able to track in real time the global price index of C2H4 gas (ethylene) (i.e. ICIS Ethylene Price Weekly report) and optimize procurement nodes with AI predictive models (error ±3%). In 2024, a chemical fiber company in Zhejiang purchased ethylene through blockchain smart contracts, reducing the contract fulfillment cycle from 45 days to 7 days, and reducing logistics costs by 18%. But don’t forget cybersecurity – in 2022, a multinational conglomerate lost $120 million in delayed ethylene deliveries when its supply chain system was hacked by ransomware.