Global trade in ethylene polymers  expanded by 6% through June 2018, to over 22 million tons based on preliminary data. Most of the increase was accounted for by higher volumes of conventional high pressure PE and ethylene-alpha-olefins copolymers.

Although China has not reported detailed trade statistics since March, available aggregated statistics for China as well as trading partner statistics indicate significant expansion in polyethylene global trade.

China’s aggregated statistics through June showed imports of conventional high pressure polyethylene plus HDPE of 4.9 million tons, up 18%, and imports of linear low density, as ethylene-alpha-olefins copolymers (EAOC), of 2.1 million tons, up 65%.

Global trade volume for conventional high pressure low density polyethylene was 4.5 million tons through June, up 9%; HDPE was 8.4 million tons, unchanged; ethylene-alpha-olefins copolymers was 3.4 million tons, up 53%, other linear low density polyethylene was 3.0 million tons, up 2%. Note that countries continue to transition to the new EAOC product category.

From International Trader Publication’s ten World Trade Reports on polyethylene trade.