China’s imports of recycle PE, PP, PS, PVC and PET totaled 300,000 tons in October 2017, compared with volumes of over 700,000 tons earlier this year and a high of more than 800,000 tons late in 2013.

New restrictions on imports into China have resulted in a drop of 8% in volumes through October 2017, to 5.4 million tons.

Imports of R-PET of 2.0 million tons were still positive versus last year, up 1%. Imports of R-PE, however, were down 13%, to 1.8 million tons. Even steeper declines were evident on imports of R-PP and R-PVC.

From International Trader Publications’ China Polymer Trade Report – an on line analysis of China’s latest statistics on imports and exports of virgin commodity polymers, recycle polymers and fabricated plastic products.