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KANANASKIS, Alta. (CP)--Profits in the worldwide petrochemicals industry will fall in 1998 because too many new plants will create a glut, delegates to a petrochemicals conference heard. Demand in the industry will grow by 4.6 pent annually in the next five years, Patrick Baggett of Houston-based research firm Chemical Market Associates said. That will create a need for about 10.6 million tonnes of new capacity each year, but expansions will add almost seven times that much to world markets, he said. New plants are planned or being built in Asia, Europe, the United States and Canada. They include projects worth $1.4 billion at Joffre in central Alberta, Fort Saskatchewan just outside Edmonton and Scotford in Ontario. By the year 1999 the surplus of world capacity will be over 26 million tonnes," Baggett said. He predicted markets won't recover until 2002 or later. Industry executives agreed the industry faces challenges, but were less glum. Ross Burns of petrochemicals giant Nova Corp. agreed a profit slump will hit next year, but Nova Corp. is still adding both ethylene and polyethylene plants to its Joffre operation. John Wills, president and chief executive of Shell Chemicals Canada, said the cycle of good and bad times shouldn't affect Shell's expansion plans. The company wants to add an ethylene glycol unit to its Scotford complex. Canada's petrochemicals industry has 350 sites and employs 27,000 people. It had annual sales of $15 billion in 1995.