China's PSF imports from Southeast Asia and Africa in Q1, 2021

According to the China customs, in Mar 2021, China's uncombed polyester staple fiber exports were 104,800 tons up 41% month on month and up 7% year on year, and imports were 20,500 tons, up 69% month on month and 34% year on year. Compared with the same period in 2019, exports increased by 6% and imports increased by 41%.

Part of plants had tolerable orders in Apr, and taking in to account the weak fundamentals of HC re-PSF, a few plants purchased for exports after May Day holiday. In Guangdong, some plants have orders filled till Aug, while in other regions, orders were ordinary.

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 2020, the imports from Myanmar reduced sharply, and in 2021, plants were hard to go operation affected by the coup.

Vietnam started to exert force in 2018. 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, imports climbed up to 19,955 tons. In the first quarter of 2021, imports reached 12,503 tons, far higher than previous years.

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 were 42,127 tons, and in the first quarter of 2021, imports were 9,317 tons.

In Jan-Feb, 2021, imports from Cambodia were 697 tons, while were zero in Mar.

Imports from Southeast Asia were 23,749 tons in 2016, 29,228 tons in 2017, 43,374 tons in 2018, 98,390 tons in 2019, 78,779 tons in 2020, and 26,594 tons in Jan-Mar, 2021. Imports may be higher than 2020 this year, but below the level of 2019.

The African market has also gradually risen in recent years, especially in 2018-2019, some domestic production lines have been transferred to Africa. Therefore, the exports to China has increased rapidly since 2019. Imports in 2020 have increased by 28%, mainly from South Africa and Nigeria. Imports from Nigeria in Mar this year were good, reaching 2,728 tons. The table below shows imports from Africa.

In 2021, with the new capacities of HC virgin PSF and HC re-PSF, and the oversupplied PET flakes, domestic supply is sufficient, which may put pressure on imports of HC virgin PSF and HC re-PSF.