China's plastics industry forges ahead with robust growth

27-Apr-06

Robust performance of China's economy in 2005 is a reflection of the healthy growth of China's plastics industry, which is expected to continue attracting investment from foreign producers, and to forge ahead despite a surge in oil prices. Plastics is a feedstock material that provides support to China's backbone industries and modern high-tech industry. Output of plastic products in China has witnessed double-digit growth annually over the past few years, reaching 22 million tons last year, a rise of 12.92 % from the previous year. Annual growth of large scale enterprises' output surpassed 10 % for three consecutive years from 2002 to 2004. The output value of plastic products at 501.13 billion yuan (US$62.3 billion) in 2005 and rising 25.81% year-on-year, is ranked third in the nation's light industry, with a share of 10.12 %. Its sales revenue and profits totalled 484.64 billion yuan (US$60.3 billion) and 20.63 billion yuan (US$2.6 billion) respectively for 2005, up 25.97 % and 30.16 % from 2004. Last year, the industry's export grew to 12.28 million tons in volume and US$16.6 billion in value, up 13.97% and 30% respectively from 2004. During the same period, the import volume dropped 2.35% to 1.74 million tons, while the import value rose to US$8.29 billion, up 17.26%.