Plastics supply news: China’s imports down on 2010; Turkey’s set record

, China's total polymer imports in March 2011 rose on a monthly basis but the country's imports saw a drop from March 2010 to March 2011. The country imported 1,486,000 tons of plastics in March 2011, an increase of 443,000 tons when compared to February, when the week-long Chinese New Year holidays led to many plants being closed. Despite the monthly increase, China's total polymer imports remained slightly below the figures reported for the same month of 2010.
 
Importing the most plastics to China in March was South Korea, with 269,812 tons, followed by Saudi Arabia (215,475 tons) and Taiwan (203,000 tons). The US and Thailand were in the top five but both exporting less than 100,000 tons to China.
 
On a material basis:

• Imports of homo-PP were up from February at 339,000 tons. 
• China imported 106,000 tons of PVC in March 2011, posting a monthly increase.
• China imported 124,000 tons of LDPE, 357,000 tons of HDPE and 235,000 tons of LLDPE in March 2011 with the country's PE imports rising sharply on a monthly basis for all products.
• Looking at the PS market, China imported 81,000 tons of PS in March 2011.  

Also according to ChemOrbis, Turkey's March polymer imports were the highest ever for the month, with that based on data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK). The Institute reports that Turkey's plastics imports in March hit 420,000 tons of polymers in March, the highest ever going back to 2000. Its imports of plastics in February 2011 were the highest for that month stretching back to 2000.

The top three exporters of plastics to Turkey in March were Saudi Arabia with 81,780 tons, Iran with 33,723 tons and Belgium with 27, 978 tons, all raising their export volumes from February to March. Total March imports from India tripled compared to January, reaching 19,478 tons. Total imports from the U.S. rose slightly to 18,758 tons, ahead of those from South Korea (17,226 tons) and Thailand (12,268 tons).

Imports from Libya decreased between February and March from 7673 tons to 2441 tons owing to the turmoil there.