Tag Archives: United States

The Rise and Fall of Global Paraxylene Trade

New para-xylene capacity in China and also in the Middle East and the rationalization of uncompetitive production in the US and Western Europe have massively changed global trade flows.

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Trends in China’s Trade in Commodity Polymers in 2023

China’s imports of commodity polymers as a total of all grades of PE, PP, styrenics, PVC and PET, declined for the third year in a row, a loss of nearly 10 million tons of volume over the 2020-2023 period. Exports of the combined total climbed for the third year in a row, increasing by nearly 7 million tons. Shipments of manufactured products identifiable as plastic showed a small gain of 0.7 million tons in 2023, rising to 16.7 million tons.

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Acrylonitrile Global Trade Trends

For most of the last ten years the volume of acrylonitrile (ACN) traded globally has trended downward. The exception was the period 2018 to 2021 when trade volume initially increased, then steadied, paralleling the trend in global trade in ABS polymer, its largest end use. There have been major shifts in ACN trade between regions over the period.

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Trends in Ethylene-alpha-Olefins Copolymers Global Trade

Global trade in ethylene-alpha-olefins copolymers (EAOC) was 14.1 million tons in 2022. ITP projects a 7% increase in global trade in 2023, to 15.1 million tons.

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Trends in LDPE/LLDPE Global Trade

Global trade in LDPE/LLDPE was 22.3 million tons in 2022. LDPE/LLDPE accounted for 33% of the 68 million tons of all grades of ethylene polymers traded globally that year.

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Trends in EDC and VCM Global Trade

Global trade volume for both EDC and VCM trended upward from 2018 through 2020 but then diverged, with profound changes in regional, and country, imports and exports over the period.

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