Rise in Turkey's plastics imports in October 2010

02-Dec-10

According to the data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), Turkey’s plastics imports in October 2010 rose slightly compared to the September figures of the same year with the country’s imports rising from 316,000 tons to 320,000 tons month over month, as per Chemorbis. Looking at ChemOrbis import statistics data covering the last 10 years, Turkey’s plastics imports over the first 10 months of 2010 show a trend line above the past ten years of imports, going back to October 2000, when the country had imported almost one third the material imported in October 2010. The top 3 import countries were Saudi Arabia, the US and Iran with total import figures at 74,871 tons, 29,285 tons and 24,147 tons respectively. Imports from these countries rose compared to the import totals in September 2010, with the largest jump seen for Saudi Arabian origin. Other gainers included Colombia, Egypt and United Arab Emirates (UAE). Of the total polymer imports through October 2010, origins which are subject to customs duties accounted for 207,000 tons, while duty-free origins accounted for a smaller quantity of 114,000 tons. In October, duty-free origins saw a drop of 17,000 tons from September, while dutiable origins saw an increase of 22,000 tons compared to the same period. On a product by product basis, Turkey’s homo-PP imports in October 2010 did not record much change on a monthly basis, remaining slightly above 80,000 tons for another month. The country’s S-PVC imports, on the other hand, rose by 10,000 tons compared to September 2010 to 65,000 tons. Looking at the PE market, Turkey imported 20,000 tons of LDPE, 42,000 tons of HDPE and 27,000 tons of LLDPE through October 2010, with the country’s import volumes showing no significant change month over month. Similarly, Turkey’s PS imports were almost unchanged from September 2010 with the total imported volume reported as 20,000 tons.