The volume of recyclable PVC traded globally has fallen by over 60% over the last five years, from nearly 900,000 tons in 2016 to 340,000 tons projected for year-end 2020.

Most of decline in trade volume has been because of China’s ban on imports of recyclable materials as of 2017. This sharply reduced trade within the Asia-Pacific region as of 2018. Intra-regional trade dropped from 465,000 tons in 2016 to 99,000 tons in 2020. Imports have steadily declined over the period. Sourced mainly from North America and Western Europe, imports fell from 215,000 tons in 2016 to 39,000 tons in 2020.

In Western Europe, intra-regional trade and also imports from other regions were fairly constant from 2016 through 2019, intra-regional trade at around 95,000 tons per year, imports at around 15,000 tons per year. Exports trended lower for most of the period, from a high in 2016 of 110,000 tons. All three trade flows were substantially reduced in 2020 by Covid-19.

From International Trader Publications’ Recyclable PVC World Trade Report, a continuously updated analysis of RPVC global trade based on statistics from key countries.