JIANGSU GET RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY CO,.LTD.

US export data continues to be affected by restrictions on waste plastic imports in Southeast Asia. Since mid-2018, imports from these countries, the largest overseas markets for waste plastics in the United States, have fallen sharply.

In October, India's total waste plastic imports from the United States fell to its lowest monthly volume since 2002, and 2002 was the earliest year on record. That's based on trade data released this month by the U.S. Bureau of Statistics (part of the US Department of Commerce).

In October, the United States exported 2.3 million pounds of waste plastic to India, a slight decrease from September, and a significant decrease compared with the beginning of this year. For example, in March 2019, India imported 28.7 million pounds from the United States. This figure and Monthly imports throughout 2018 were similar.

The decline in import volume indicates that India has largely produced results since the import ban was officially implemented on August 31st. Overall, India imported 181.6 million pounds of waste plastic from the United States in the first 10 months of this year, down 27% from the same period in 2018.

Since mid-2018, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam have also issued import restrictions, and waste plastic imports from these countries have continued to decline.

Malaysia's imports of waste plastics have increased the most since China stopped importing waste plastics in 2018, but the country's imports in the first 10 months of this year have decreased by 79% compared to the first 10 months of 2018. In the first 10 months of this year, Malaysia imported 90 million pounds of waste plastic, down from 431 million pounds in the same period in 2018. Malaysia implemented a key import restriction policy in 2018.

In the first 10 months of this year, Thailand imported 52.2 million pounds of waste plastic from the United States, a 75% decrease from the same period in 2018. Thailand's imports have started to decline since July 2018.

Finally, in the first 10 months of this year, Vietnam imported a total of 37.2 million pounds of U.S. waste plastic, a 77% reduction in imports compared to the same period in 2018. Vietnam has changed some import policies over the past two years and announced that it will further ban all waste plastic imports by 2023.

However, since the restraining order came into effect, the volume of exports to Thailand and Vietnam each month has been fluctuating and has generally increased.

For example, with the promulgation of the import policy, Thai imports from the United States dropped from 27.1 million pounds in June 2018 to 1.5 million pounds the following month. But since then, imports have slowly recovered to 7.5 million pounds in October 2019. In Vietnam, the import volume of U.S. waste plastics dropped from 38.2 million pounds in May 2018 to less than 1 million pounds in August of that year, and then slowly increased, reaching 4.6 million pounds in October 2019.

At the same time, imports of a resin in Malaysia increased significantly in October 2019. From January to September, Malaysia imported 6.2 million pounds of PVC waste plastic from the United States. But in just one month in October, Malaysia imported 12.6 million pounds. Imports in October accounted for 65% of US PVC waste plastic exports in the month.