Plastic products export reshape China’s polyolefins demand growth in 2020

In 2019, China represented 33% polyethylene and 39% of polypropylene of the global demand. The country has traditionally been the primary demand center for the polyolefins, not only as a direct consumer of the finished goods but also as a prominent exporter of the finished products. In our polyethylene supply demand analytics service, we assessed China’s demand for polyethylene at 4.9% and polypropylene at 3.7%. These numbers reflected our view at the beginning of April, which is being evaluated weekly via our Coronavirus and Polymers insight series. In this insight, we are examining China’s total resin demand. Specifically, the drop in the finished goods exports, which are impacting the polyolefins demand.