Special product market
Paraffin constitutes a special petroleum product, which apart from the obvious use of paraffin which is the manufacture of candles and constitutes the largest percentage of the Greek market, there are other uses such as the following:
- Food and drug industries: e.g. as a coating agent (cheese), immersion of beehives, pharmacy, pharmaceutical paraffin bath, Vaseline (petrolatum), cosmetic industries, grafting paraffin coating, battery manufacturing (TOSOH) etc.
- Other industries: e.g. packaging material industries, ink/varnish industries, production industries of car protection products, as polish in furniture industries, as insulation, as polishing material, rubber industries etc.
The above specialised uses cover a relatively small percentage of the consumption and it is estimated that it cannot exceed 20% of the total market.
It is estimated that since 2008 this market has been shrunk by 30% to 35% and it is at the levels of 5.200 MT per year.
In this amount about 1.500 MT of recycling wax residue from churches and monasteries should be added.
In this special market, LPC is a leader with a share of over 50%, while the paraffin marketed is of high quality and it is supplied mainly from Motor Oil.