China imported over 8 million tons of plastics scrap and recycled plastics last year. 50% of these imports came from the EU and a further 3 million tons from the USA. Demand for scrap in China is estimated to have a very robust growth.
Despite high oil prices, the Dutch and German plastics recycling industries had witnessed an early-year reduction in exports to Asia and lower prices for PET and polyethylene foils in particular.
The German market had become more open following the end of the DSD monopoly: in 2005, many reprocessors had been unable to source sufficient supplies via the DSD system whereas more players were now offering material.
Strong economic growth has triggered healthy demand in South Africa for LDPE and HDPE. Also, the country's PET recovery rate had improved following the decision to finance collections through a tax on primary material.
LDPE accounted for a sizeable proportion of India's plastics scrap imports, PET scrap has a very weak market and there is no market for PP, PVC or HDPE in India. Good demand was reported from India for clean 98/2 LDPE scrap, used granulated bags and coloured LDPE films. 20 of the 30 Indian companies permitted to import plastics scrap had obtained licence extensions lasting only three months, whereas the remaining companies had secured longer licence periods. Scrap imports from the USA saw a substantial decline. India also does not import electronics scrap even though such trade would not entail any special legal requirements.
09-Jun-06 
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