Western Europe’s Commodity Polymer Trade in 2024

Weak demand, competition in export markets and imports from other regions were reflected in Western Europe’s trade in polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene and PVC in 2024.

Western Europe exported 1.1 -1.4 million tons each of LDPE, linear/ethylene-alpha-olefin copolymers (LL/EAOC), HDPE, polypropylene homopolymer (PP), propylene copolymer (PRC), and uncompounded PVC plus smaller volumes of EVA and polystyrene. The largest volume imports into Western Europe, were HDPE, LL/EAOC and PP, each 1.4 – 2.1 million tons, followed by LDPE, PRC, PVCU, polystyrene and EVA.

Most of the gains versus the prior year in Western Europe’s export totats was due to Increased exports to Eastern Europe, Africa was a high growth destination for Western Europe’s exports of LDPE, general purpose PS and PVCU, shipments up 20-30%. Higher volumes of LL/EAOC were exported to to Asia-Pacific, noting reduced supplies to that region from both North America and the Middle East. Western Europe’s HDPE exports to Asia-Pacific, however, dropped 21%, noting an increase in Middle East shipments to that region. Western Europe’s PVC trade was influenced by the imposition of anti-dumping duties on imports from the US, which plummetted, Western Europe’s PVC intra-regional trade expanded, and shipments from Western Europe to every region except the Middle East increased.

Western Europe imported large volumes of LDPE, LL/EAOC and HDPE from North America, each up 21-25%. LDPE supplies from the Middle East were up 11%; LL/EAOC volumes were flat; HDPE increased 6%. A surge in imports of polypropylene from Asia-Pacific was apparent, volume up 28% (to 251,000 tons), with even higher imports of propylene copolymer imports (261,000 tons,) up 6%.

From International Trader Publications continuously updated World Trade Analyses of all grade of commodity polymers.