Highlights of Russia’s exports through September, 2011: much lower exports of HDPE, LDPE and polypropylene but higher imports of each of these polymers, and also of PET, polystyrene and PVC; increased exports of methanol; lower shipments of styrene.

Russia’s HDPE exports were off 62% through September, to 45 K tons; LDPE shipments dropped 28%, to 114 K tons; polypropylene fell 67%, to only 11 K tons. Russia’s imports of polyethylene surged: HDPE up 29%, to 222 K tons; LDPE up 11%, to 46 K tons; and LLDPE up 22%, to 89 K tons. There were minor increases in imports of polypropylene, 93 K tons, up 1%, and propylene copolymers, up 2%.

Bottle grade PET imports jumped 17%, to 203 K tons; imports of non-expandable polystyrene rose 44%, to 48 K tons; expandable polystyrene, 2%, to 74 K tons. Particularly large volumes of PVC were imported, 457 K tons, up 38%, top suppliers including the US, China and Germany.

Russia exported 1.4 M tons of methanol, up 13%, and 112 K tons of styrene, down 20%.

[important]This information is from ITP’s newsletters on global trade in polymers and chemicals, available by subscription monthly or quarterly.[/important]

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