Africa’s trade in commodity polymers in 2024 was characterized by relatively small volume exports of HDPE, polypropylene and PVC. Imports of each of these polymers were substantial and posted gains versus the prior year. This series of blogs quantifies imports and exports in 2024 of the major commodity polymers – LDPE, linear/ethylene-alpha-olefin copolymers (LL/EAOC), HDPE, EVA, PP, propylene copolymers (PRC), polystyrene and PVC – allowing comparisons across the polymers for the geographic regions of Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, North America, Latin America, Middle East and Asia-Pacific.

Roughly 90% of Africa’s exports of both HDPE and polypropylene went to Western plus Eastern Europe. PVC exports also were shipped mainly to Europe but noting sharply higher volumes to Latin America.

Polyethylene imports from both North America and the Middle East, the region’s largest volume suppliers, were up from the prior year. The Middle East continued as Africa’s top supplier of polypropylene but volumes were down, noting a 144% jump in imports of homopolymer into Africa from China’s new PP capacity. Africa imported increased volumes of PVC from Western Europe and also North America, the latter region shifting exports away from Europe because of an anti-dumping action by the EU on US polymer.

From International Trader Publications’ continuously updated World Trade Analyses of all grades of commodity polymers.