Although Russia stopped publishing trade statistics soon after invading Ukraine, the country’s trade is visible in large part from the statistics of trading partners. These show lower imports and exports of several key polymers in 2022.

Trading partner statistics, with delayed countries projected by ITP through yearend 2022, show the following:

Much higher imports into Russia from China of PVCU, PMDI and bottle grade PET either partly or, in the case of PET, entirely, offset reduced volumes from the EU and other countries.

On the export side, HDPE exports from Russia to Turkey increased, but much lower shipments to China and most other countries resulted in the 27% decline in total shipments.

Much higher shipments of polypropylene, Russia’s largest volume export, to both China and Turkey greatly offset sharply lower volumes to many other countries, resulting in an overall decline of 8% projected for the year.

From International Trader Publications’ World Trade Analyses and Projections for each polymer.