China's PSF imports from Southeast Asia and Africa in Jan-May, 2021

According to the China customs, in May 2021, China's uncombed polyester staple fiber exports were 72,500 tons, down 11% month on month and up 89% year on year, and imports were 11,700 tons, down 13% month on month and 41% year on year. Compared with the same period in 2019, exports declined by 19% and imports reduced by 47%.

Currently, exports remain difficult: on one hand, USD/CNY exchange rate keeps low since 2019 and the appreciation of CNY makes the exports difficult. On the other hand, the sea freight has been constantly increasing. The containers are accumulating at the ports and in the third quarter, it remains the buoyant season for the shipments, so in short, the situation may be difficult to effectively alleviate. The market is facing the contradictions of tight overseas demand but high sea freight and tight ships. Therefore, some producers have delayed the delivery and some downstream buyers have not ordered. Though there is concern that the supply may be short for the Christmas Day in end 2021, no intensive orders are heard by now, and some HC re-PSF plants reflect that overseas clients have not replenished stocks.

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 reduced largely, and in the first five months of 2021, imports were 378 tons.

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 have exceeded 10,000 tons, and imports from January to May were 18,189 tons. The imports in the first half year of 2021 are likely to exceed the imports of the whole year of 2020. In terms of the monthly data of Vietnam, the imports have been high since October 2020. Previously, the monthly imports were 1,000-2,000 tons, but since October, 2020, the imports maintained above 2,000 tons, even 4,600-4,800yuan/mt in January and March, 2021.  It was mainly attributed to the demand recovery, larger price spread between virgin PSF and recycled PSF and the speculative demand around the Lunar New Year.

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 January 2021, Jiulongthai Phase II unit started up, with a HC re-PSF capacity of 100 tons per day. The products mainly export to Europe and the United States. In 2020, imports were 42,127 tons, and in the first five months of 2021, imports totaled 13,268 tons.

In January-February, 2021, imports from Cambodia were seen a small volume, while the imports were zero in March. In the first five months of 2021, imports totaled 987 tons.

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 38,361 tons in January-May, 2021.

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 South Africa shrank obviously. Imports from Nigeria in Mar this year were good, reaching 2,728 tons. The table below shows imports from Africa.

With the larger price spread between virgin PSF and re-PSF in 2021, overseas recycled PSF, especially solid re-PSF, tends to flow into Chinese market.