China's PSF exports hit multi-year high in 2023

According to the China Customs, uncarded PSF exports of China were 90.2kt in Dec, 2023, an increase of 3.3% year on year, but down 14.7% month on month. In the whole year of 2023, exports totaled 1.205 million tons, up 21.1% from 2022.

In terms of the top 10 export destinations in 2023, Vietnam remained the largest export markets, with a volume of 222,355 tons, up about 48.8% from the same period of 2022. Pakistan ranked the second place, up 21.6% year on year. U.S. and India continued to see a year-on-year decline, down by 3.2% and 12.5% respectively. Exports to India were abnormal in 2023 affected by the BIS certification and the decrement enlarged. 

For the export market proportion, Vietnam took the largest share of 18.5%, up 3.4% year on year. Pakistan and Indonesia took the second and third largest shares, at 10.12% and 6.2% respectively. Again, the shares of United States reduced to 4.2%, down 1.1% year on year.

Due to low costs, Chinese PSF has obvious price advantages on international market, so some traditional textile countries, like Pakistan, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Turkey, turn to import from yarn to PSF, and the industrial exports transfer to upstream market. In addition, due to downgrade in consumption, PSF replace some viscose. Therefore, PSF exports increase obviously in 2023.

In 2024, with the capacity expansion of HC virgin PSF and low-melting PSF, PSF market will face fiercer competition and plants will also seek for exports actively to relieve the pressure, so PSF exports may maintain high growth in 2024.