How about the recycled plastics market in 2018?

Imported recycled plastic in 2017 is hard to say

From the perspective of the trend of recycled plastics imports in 2005-2017, the development of recycled plastics has entered a bottleneck period, and the volume of imports in 2017 has shrunk significantly, which has become a watershed in the industry. In 2017, the import volume was 5,829,100 tons, a decrease of 20.66% compared with last year. Compared with the strong environmental protection policy in 2013, the market environment was slightly loose in 2014, and imports have declined for two consecutive years. However, in 2015, domestic and foreign demand is difficult to change, and the product factory has lowered the purchase price of raw materials in the absence of orders. After the introduction of the "prohibition of waste" this year, local policies tightened, and imports in the second half of the year decreased rapidly. Therefore, imports in 2017 decreased significantly.

For the sudden change in the import situation, about 80% of domestic import enterprises have experienced passive transfer or trade. Based on this, the market has fraudulent incidents from time to time, and the risk of corporate trading has increased. In addition, the significant reduction in recycled imported materials has led to a significant decline in sales of returning production companies and a serious loss of profits. For the product enterprises, the market is faintly expensive, and the price increase becomes inevitable after the reduction of imported materials, which leads to a significant increase in the cost of raw materials procurement. After the difficulty of the operation of the product factory, it will affect the return supplier, and the infinite cycle will affect the entire industry.

Monthly imports of various products are also decreasing simultaneously

Among the recycled plastics, the products with high import dependence are recycled PE, recycled PET, and other waste plastics. Therefore, these three varieties were “the most injured” in 2017. Recycled PE is a major importer of recycled plastics over the years. In the past year, the import volume was maintained at 200,000 to 350,000 tons. In 2017, under the influence of the “prohibition of waste”, the import volume in the second half of the year fell to 100,000-200,000 tons, and even exceeded 100,000 tons in the fourth quarter, and only 69,000 tons in December.

The majority of imported PET is in the hands of large domestic chemical fiber companies. After the policy major adjustment, domestic enterprises quickly transferred to the trading mode and reduced imports in the second half of the year. In the past three years, the monthly import volume of recycled PET has remained at 1.5-300,000 tons, and in the fourth quarter of 2017, it dropped to 10 tons, and in December it was only 63,800 tons, which was the lowest in history.

Recycled other waste plastics include recycled PP and recycled EPS. In the second half of 2017, the shrinkage of other waste plastics was obvious, mainly because there were many products in the tariff code, and the company’s own import approval amount was limited. After the policy was turned sharply, the company chose to reduce imports or abandon the conversion to domestic materials after avoiding risks.

Waiting for the flower of the 2018 recycling market

The amount of imports in the second half of the year is enough to see the shock of the “forbidden waste order”, as well as the self-discipline and advance layout of the company. According to the policy, only the scraps and defective products of the industrial source category are allowed to be imported later. Importing enterprises will turn to Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, Eastern Europe and other countries. After the waste plastics will be produced and processed in other countries, some of the sources will be digested nearby, and the rest will still be imported into China in the form of pellets. At present, some enterprises have already carried out industrial layout in many countries, so the import of recycled granules in the later period will make up for part of the loss of imported materials. As for how much to make up, the industry is waiting for the recycling of the recycled plastics market.