China cuts imports of US plastics scrap by 20%

Asia – US exports of plastics scrap suffered a 5% setback across the first 11 months of 2015 despite year-on-year surges in shipments to Canada and Taiwan of, respectively, 35% and 81%.

The overall decline to 1.908 million tonnes owes much to the 20% slump in deliveries to leading buyer China – from 1.013 million tonnes in January-November 2014 to 814 012 tonnes in last year’s corresponding period, confirm latest figures from the US Census Bureau and International Trade Commission.

Deliveries of US plastics scrap to Canada climbed year on year from 161 225 tonnes to 218 051 tonnes while Taiwan’s purchases leapt from 26 772 to 48 371 tonnes. Among the other major overseas buyers of US plastics scrap in January-November 2015, shipments to India edged 4% higher to 85 944 tonnes while Hong Kong recorded a 9% increase to 562 824 tonnes.

As an indication of falling commodity values, revenues from US exports of plastics scrap fell more sharply than volumes in the first 11 months of last year, dropping 13.3% to US$ 762 million.