The United States exported a total of 4.5 million tons of ethylene polymers through October 2017, down 3% from the prior year. The small decline was the net of lower shipments of LLDPE and HDPE, partly offset by gains on exports of LDPE, EVA and Ethylene Copolymers.

The breakout of US exports by polymer grade was: LDPE 666,000 tons, up 7%; LLDPE 638,000 tons, down 10%; HDPE 1.744 million tons, down 13%; EVA 166,000 tons, up 5%; and Ethylene Copolymers 1.26 million tons, up 11% (Ethylene Copolymers are ethylene-alpha-olefins copolymers plus other ethylene copolymers).

There has been a strong upward trend in US exports under the new designation “ethylene-alpha-olefins copolymers” and a concomitant downward trend in exports of “other ethylene copolymers”. Shipments to date: 671,000 tons of ethylene-alpha-olefins copolymers; 590,000 tons of other ethylene copolymers.

US exports of HDPE to Mexico were down 31% through October, to 442,000 tons and shipments to numerous Latin American markets also were off. Mexico’s new HDPE capacity was a factor in both trends, and also in the surge in US imports of this polymer from Mexico.

From International Trader Publications’ World Trade Reports on: All Polymers of Ethylene; LDPE/LLDPE; LDPE; LLDPE; HDPE; EVA; Ethylene Copolymers;  Ethylene-Alpha-Olefins Copolymers; and, Other Ethylene Copolymers. World Trade Reports are continuously updated analyses of trade trends between countries and regions, based on latest import/export statistics from 90 countries.