April imports of high density polyethylene (HDPE) into Russia decreased to 31,600 tonnes, down from 32,800 tonnes in April, but the figures remain at high levels, according to MRC’s DataScope report.
The record high imports were last registered in November 2017, when they exceeded 32,000 tonnes per month due to a scheduled turnaround at some production facilities from producer Stavrolen.
This year’s high levels of imports were caused by higher HDPE shipments from producers in central Asia.
In October 2018, a new gas chemical complex with a total capacity of just over 380,000 tonnes per year was launched in Turkmenistan, which led to an increase in supply of HDPE in central Asia.
At the same time, the new producer has so far offered for sale injection moulding and pipe grade HDPE.
Overall HDPE imports into Russia exceeded 107,900 tonnes in the first four months of 2019, up from 80,800 tonnes in the same period of 2018.
The top five countries for polyethylene (PE) shipments to Russia in 2019 were Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Finland, South Korea and Thailand. - ICIS-