(ICIS) -- US butadiene (BD) supply will remain tight for the foreseeable future because olefins plants will crack more ethane, limiting the output of crude C4, an industry executive said on Wednesday.
US ethane feedstock usage will continue to grow, Craig Barry, Dow Chemical's co-monomer and global C4s business director, predicted during a presentation at the 6th ICIS World Olefins Conference in Brussels, Belgium.
Ethane presently accounts for around 65% of US cracker feedstocks, but the Dow executive estimated that number would rise to as much as 70% by 2015.
Meanwhile, the use of naphtha as an ethylene feedstock was seen dropping to around 7% in the same period, he said.