The Philippine petrochemical industry is currently oriented towards downstream operations. These operations involve the manufacture of synthetic resins primarily for the plastic processing, surface coating and textile industries.

The locally manufactured plastic resins consist primarily of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polystyrene (PS) resins. However, the Philippine's petrochemical industry currently has a limited scope that is due to the inadequacy of a local upstream facility to supply the necessary basic raw materials, like monomers, which are currently being imported.

In the absence of this local manufacturing capability, the demand for polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) resins have been sourced entirely from importations.