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.
Continue readingAfrica’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.
Continue readingEastern Europe shipped substantially higher volumes of PET in 2024, mainly on trade with Western Europe. Smaller volume exports of ABS also were up, Asia-Pacific trade accounting for the growth. Exports of SAN, Polyacetal, PC and PMMA contracted.
The region was the world’s largest importing region for ABS and SAN, and the second largest for PC and PMMA. Imports of all of the engineering polymers were up in 2024.
Continue readingWestern 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.
Continue readingSaudi 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.
Continue readingSaudi 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.
Continue readingAlthough final trade statistics for 2024 will not be available for many countries until March of 2025, ITP’s analysis of trends for individual countries indicates expanded global trade volume in 2024 for the majority of products. Increased global trade generally indicates increased demand.
Continue readingGains or declines in global trade volume have wide-ranging implications for shippers, producers, marketers and planners.
Continue readingPolyolefin polymer demand in Western Europe in 2023 is measurable in part from the region’s intra-regional trade, its imports from other regions, and its exports to other regions. Lower intra-regional trade and lower imports indicate a drop in demand from one year to the next. These were evident in 2023 versus 2022 for LDPE, linear PE, HDPE, and PP homopolymer. Lower polymer demand in a region is also usually associated with an increase in a region’s exports, if conditions make this possible. Western Europe’s exports of HDPE did increase in 2023, but shipments of other polymers were constrained by low demand in other regions and surging exports from North America.
Continue readingGlobal 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.
Continue readingStrong growth in exports of polypropylene out of the Middle East, and, in 2021 and 2022, also out of Asia-Pacific, were prominent trends in a comparison of regional exports from 2018 through 2022. Imports were mixed but generally increased into Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America over the period.
Continue reading