March PP, PE imports to China fall; PS, PVC imports rise

According to data from Chinese Customs, the country’s polymer imports for March dropped 10% when compared with the previous month, as per ChemOrbis. The declines in the overall figures were driven by reductions in PP and PE imports while PVC and PS imports increased on a month over month basis. China’s imports for homo-PP dropped 11.3% month over month and 6.5% year over year in March to reach 317,060 tons. The top homo-PP exporters to China in March were Saudi Arabia (68,978 tons), South Korea (64,725 tons), Taiwan (31,322 tons), the United Arab Emirates (29,635 tons) and Singapore (21,158 tons). Imports from Saudi Arabia, South Korea and India posted significant losses in March while imports from Taiwan and Singapore were higher month over month. China’s March imports for HDPE and LDPE posted significant month over month losses while LLDPE imports posted only a modest month over month decrease. HDPE imports plunged 18.8% from February to reach 306,388 tons. The leading HDPE exporters to China in March were Saudi Arabia (55,370 tons), South Korea (50,322 tons), Iran (47,064 tons), the United Arab Emirates (35,431 tons) and Thailand (18,782 tons). Iran was the only country among the top five HDPE exporters to China to increase its exports of the product in March. LDPE imports fell 12.7% month over month to reach 121,262 tons in April. The leading LDPE exporters in March were South Korea (16,125 tons), Saudi Arabia (13,995 tons), Malaysia (12,610 tons), Qatar (10,766 tons) and Russia (10,400 tons). In contrast to the double digit drops recorded in HDPE and LDPE imports, LLDPE imports lost only 2.5% from the previous month to reach 198,493 tons in March. The leading LDPE exporters in March were Saudi Arabia (59,879 tons), Thailand (35,131 tons), Singapore (26,919 tons), the United States (21,953 tons) and South Korea (13,298 tons). While PP and PE imports moved lower to China, imports of PS and PVC posted month over month increases, as per ChemOrbis. PS imports gained 12.9% month over month in March to reach 84,466 tons. China’s primary sources of import PS were Taiwan (28,789 tons), Hong Kong (16,948 tons), South Korea (15,603 tons), Singapore (8,167 tons) and Thailand (5,059 tons). PVC imports were also up in March, rising 2.8% month over month to 93,240 tons. The United States (43,483 tons), Taiwan (26,973 tons) and Japan (13,847 tons) accounted for more 90% of China’s March imports between them, with the United States supplying nearly half of China’s total PVC imports.