China Mar PE, PP imports fall 13% from Feb; down 11% year on year

25 April 2012 09:15  [Source: ICIS news]

(recasts throughout, for clarity; reference to co-PP was removed in paragraph 3)

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--China’s polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) imports in March fell to 1.03m tonnes, down by 13.2% from February and 10.6% lower year on year because of weak domestic demand, market players said on Wednesday.

China Customs data showed the country’s PP imports totalled 407,200 tonnes last month, representing a 13.4% decline from February and a 7.27% fall from the same period last year.

Import volumes of homo-PP in March slipped by 6.5% year on year to 317,100 tonnes.

China’s PE imports in March declined 13.0% month on month to 626,100 tonnes, down by 12.6% compared with the same period last year, official data showed.

Its HDPE imports totalled 306,400 tonnes, while it took in 121,300 tonnes tonnes of LDPE and 198,500 tonnes of LLDPE in March.

On a year-on-year basis, March HDPE imports declined 14.2%, while LDPE and LLDPE imports were down 2.3% and 15.5%, respectively, China Customs data showed.

Some downstream producers in China received limited orders from overseas customers amid the European debt crisis and an unclear global economic picture.

China’s tight monetary policy is also contributing to the weakness in demand as domestic producers have to contend with scarcity of capital, traders said.

By: Amy Yu

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