Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is mainly composed of propane and butane, some of which also contains propylene and butylene. LPG is generally obtained from oil and gas fields, refineries or ethylene plants, mainly for civil fuel, alkaline cracking, propane dehydrogenation (PDH) to propylene and other end uses. In recent years, the increasing demand for chemical raw materials has become an important driving force in the global LPG Market. Firstly, ethylene plants use refinery saturated LPG to replace naphtha cracking to produce ethylene. This is done when the prices are appropriate and thus its share of raw materials gradually expands. Secondly, the demand gap of propylene and the advantages of PDH technology stimulate the global upsurge of production expansion. However, it should be noted that in recent years, the civil field of natural gas has developed rapidly. Ethane to ethylene is in the ascendant, and LPG consumption has been restrained to a certain extent.

The Asia Pacific region is the fastest growing region of LPG trade in the world. Most of the new global demand stems from this region. In 2016 the net import volume of LPG in Asia Pacific (the total net import volume of each country) was 1.586 million barrels / day (49.78 million tons / year), which is expected to increase to 1.959 million barrels / day (61.49 million tons / year) in 2020. This amounts to an increase of 23.5%. LPG imported from the Asia Pacific region mainly comes from the Middle East, Eurasia, Europe, America and Africa. In 2015 China has surpassed Japan as the largest LPG importer in the Asia Pacific region, followed by India, South Korea and Indonesia.