Despite a hard and prolonged winter, Russia’s imports of several polymers climbed in March 2013. Particularly high volumes of uncompounded PVC and ethylene copolymers were imported that month.

For many polymers, a strong upward trend was evident on imports into Russia throughout 2012, with new record highs set on imports of ethylene copolymers, EVA, HDPE, LDPE and propylene copolymers. At yearend, Russia’s imports of these polymers were up 18%-108%. There were large percentage gains on imports of numerous other polymers as well.