Although the EU Summit that concluded October 16th, 2026 yielded a concession from China to reduce exports of electric vehicles to Europe by almost half, the European Commission was charged with creating, “without delay”, new and possibly severe trade defense instruments to counter imports of other products, including chemicals. Details and what, if any, polymers were included were not provided (The Straits Times).

There has been a major expansion in China’s polymer exports. Through September 2026, China’s total exports – both within Asia-Pacific and to other regions – were 3.5 million tons of polyethylene (all grades), up 126%; 3.5 million tons of polypropylene, up 46%; 1.4 million tons of styrenic polymers, up 44%; and 3.9 million tons of PVC, up 13%. Roughly 60% of China’s exports of each of these polymers remain within Asia-Pacific; less than 5% goes to Western Europe.

However, China’s exports of these polymers to Western Europe (mainly EU) through September 2026 have already exceeded volumes for all of 2025.

Worth noting, the EU launched an anti-dumping investigation on imports of suspension PVC from China and other countries on September 23, 2026 (INEOS, Argus Media). Other investigations may follow.

Note that the volumes shown are as reported by Chinese Customs, which precede EU import statistics by 2-3 months.

From International Trader Publications’ China Polymer Trade Report, a monthly analysis of China’s trade in all grades of commodity polymers, recyclable polymers and major fabricated plastic products.