China's PSF imports from Southeast Asia and Africa in 2020

According to the China customs, in Dec 2020, China's uncombed polyester staple fiber exports were 76,900 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 1.6%, and a month-on-month fall of 13%, and imports were 14,700 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 21.2% and a fall of 19.6% from Nov. In 2020, imports totaled 185.5kt, a fall of 32.4kt year on year, and exports totaled 795.7kt, down 182.7kt year on year.

Exports reached a low in May, continued to rise from Jul to Sep, and maintained above 70kt in Oct and Dec. In Nov, exports increased further, showing the hot demand from overseas markets. Currently, plants in Zhejiang and Guangdong continued to deliver the foreign orders in Jan. HC re-PSF exports were offered at $950-980FOB, and plants in Guangdong may have foreign orders in Mar-Apr.

HS code 55032000 is synthetic staple fibers, of polyesters, not carded, including virgin PSF and recycled PSF. And the imports from Southeast Asia and African are mainly the recycled PSF.　The following are the changes in recent years.

In the import origins of PSF, Myanmar appeared in 2017, and the overall imports were not much. In 2019, one HC re-PSF production line in Hangzhou was moved to Myanmar, and has not started production till now. In Jan-Jul, 2020, imports reached 671 tons. Imports were zero in Mar, May, Jul-Dec, and the products are mainly to Europe and the US. Imports from Myanmar have reduced sharply this year, and in 2019, imports totaled 4,822 tons.

Vietnam started to exert force in 2018. In 2017, imports were only a few hundred tons. Following the solid waste ban, domestic plants moved to foreign countries gradually. Vietnam has gathered solid re-PSF and a few HC virgin PSF plants. Imports in 2018 soared to 13,113 tons and reached 19,196 tons in 2019. In 2020, it will increase 19,955 tons again. Barring solid re-PSF, Vietnam also exported HC virgin PSF into Nantong market in 2020, and its prices were even lower than the lowest prices of domestic HC virgin PSF.

The imports from Thailand has tripled in 2019 compared to 2016, to 45,000 tons. The local re-PSF capacity is about 250kta in 2020, and the competition focuses on HC re-PSF. In Jan 2021, Jiulongthai Phase II has started up, with HC re-PSF capacity of 100 tons per day, totaling 200 tons per day. In 2020, imports totaled 42,127 tons, and the imports slowed down somewhat from the third quarter. As Chinese re-PSF prices were low (prices of Europe and the US were higher than that of China), and operation was normal, the high priced re-PSF was hard to be imported, while African re-PSF imports increased due to its lower prices.

Imports from the whole Southeast Asia were 23,749 tons in 2016, 29,228 tons in 2017, 43,374 tons in 2018, 98,390 tons in 2019, and 78,779 tons in 2020, down 19.9% year on year.

The African market has also gradually risen in recent years. Especially in 2018-2019, some domestic production lines have also been transferred to Africa. Shandong Shenrunfa transfers its 17kt/year capacity to Nigeria, Guangdong Junfu’s 40kt/year capacity to Nigeria and Guangdong Sanlong’s 20kt/year to South Africa.　No PSF has been imported from Tanzania and Egypt in 2020. Imports from South Africa and Nigeria surpassed 2019, and that from Nigeria was 1.6 times that of 2019. The imports from Africa rose by 28% on the year. The table below shows imports from Africa.

In 2020, the import origins from Africa include Ethiopia. In Jun, the import volumes were 98 tons from Ethiopia. Imports from South Africa increased sharply in July, reaching 1,114 tons, and imports from Nigeria were 565 tons. In Aug-Sep, monthly imports from Nigeria were about 1,100 tons, and its total imports by now have surpassed the all year volumes of 2019. Imports from South Africa were 1,118 tons in Aug, and then reduced.