Western Europe imported nearly 340,000 tons of PET polymer from Asia-Pacific through September, up 43%, based on reporting countries. This volume exceeded imports from Eastern Europe of 330,000 ton through that date, up 2%. Also of note were large percentage gains on smaller volume imports into Western Europe from Africa.

South Korea, Indonesia, India and China were leading PET suppliers to Western Europe in the Asia-Pacific region.

Western Europe’s imports from Africa totaled 43,000 tons YTD and were mainly from Egypt, noting EIPET’s new plant in Sokhna. Egypt also exported 27,000 tons of PET to Eastern Europe, plus smaller amounts to other regions.