Tag Archives: Africa

China’s Surging PP Exports Have Sharply Reduced Korea’s Exports Within Asia-Pacific and Africa, but Not Yet in Europe

China and South Korea are early reporting countries with trade data currently available for April 2025. From January to April, China exported 1.0 million tons of polypropylene (all grades), up 17%; Korea shipped 1.2 million tons, down 9%.

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Asia-Pacific’s ABS, SAN, Polyacetal, Polycarbonate, PMMA, and PET Trade in 2024: Key Trends and Regional Shifts

Asia-Pacific was the world’s largest exporter of all of these engineering polymers in 2024 and volumes were up from the prior year, especially for PET. Asia-Pacific was also the world’s largest importer of polyacetals, polycarbonates, and PMMA. Trade flows shifted markedly for both exports and imports.

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The Middle East’s ABS, SAN, Polyacetal, Polycarbonate, PMMA, and PET Trade in 2024: Key Trends and Regional Shifts

The Middle East’s largest volume engineering polymer exports were polycarbonates, PET, and ABS. The largest imports were PET and polycarbonates.

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North America’s ABS, SAN, Polyacetal, Polycarbonate, PMMA and PET Trade in 2024: Key Trends and Regional Shifts

North America exported sizable volumes of polycarbonates, polyacetals, ABS and PET film/fiber grade in 2024 and imported large volumes of bottle and film/fiber grade PET, and ABS.

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Africa’s ABS, SAN, Polyacetal, Polycarbonate, PMMA and PET Trade in 2024: Key Trends and Regional Shifts

Africa’s only sizable exports of engineering polymers are PET.

The region’s imports of PET are much larger. The region also imports small volumes of ABS, SAN, Polyacetal, PC, and PMMA.

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Western Europe’s ABS, SAN, Polyacetal, Polycarbonate, PMMA, and PET Trade in 2024: Key Trends and Regional Shifts

Western Europe exported roughly 25% more ABS, SAN, Polyacetal, and PET polymer in 2024 than in 2023. Exports of PC and PMMA grew 5%.

Imports of PET film/fiber grade jumped 24%; polycarbonates, 12%. Import trends for other polymers were mixed.

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Asia-Pacific’s PE, PP, PS, and PVC Trade in 2024: Key Trends, Challenges, and Regional Shifts

The Asia-Pacific region exported sizable volumes of polypropylene, propylene copolymers (PRC), polystyrene, and uncompounded PVC (PVCU) in 2024. Export trends for polyethylene grades were mixed, polypropylene surged on new capacity, styrenic exports were relatively flat, PVC shipments dropped.

With a major impact on global trends, Asia-Pacific continued as the world’s largest regional importer of all grades of polyethylene, but fell to second place for polypropylene and PRC, after Eastern Europe. Import demand in the larger Asia-Pacific markets – China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia – varied by polymer, declining in some, others showing impressive growth.

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Saudi Arabia and UAE Exports of Polypropylene in 2024 Hit by China’s Aggressive PP Export Expansion Globally

Saudi Arabia exported 4.4 million tons of polypropylene (all grades, partly estimated) in 2024, down 14%. The UAE shipped 1.7 million tons, down 7%. (UAE does not publish statistics; data is visible from trading partners). Shipments to Asia-Pacific were the most impacted.

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Saudi Arabia and UAE Expand Polyethylene Exports in 2024 Despite Trade Challenges

Saudi Arabia exported 10.6 million tons of polyethylene (all grades, partly estimated) in 2024, up 2% from 2023. The UAE shipped 3.8 million tons, up 11%. (UAE does not publish statistics; data is visible from trading partners). Key to the expansions were regional shifts.

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Middle East’s PE, PP, PS and PVC Trade in 2024: Key Trends, Challenges, and Regional Shifts

It was a challenging year for the world’s largest volume exporter of most grades of polyethylene and polypropylene. Weak demand in Asia-Pacific and competition from North America and Asia-Pacific resulted in a drop in Middle East exports of LPDE, EVA, polypropylene homopolymer, and propylene copolymers versus the prior year, and shifts in regional destinations.

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