Last year, China announced that it would stop importing waste plastics and it will be implemented strongly this year. In January this year, the amount of imported plastics was less than 1% in the same period of last year. Concomitantly, with the new demand for chemical products increasing, the Korean domestic industry has improved its expectation of performance. .
In January of this year, China's waste plastics imports amounted to 5,437 tons, a decrease of 99.1% year-on-year from 598,000 tons in January last year. Some analysts believe that although import volume has also increased in the past year, it was able to import due to delayed customs clearance. At the same time, China has long implemented a comprehensive ban on waste plastics.
China imported 7.3 million tons of waste paper, waste tires, and metals and waste plastics equivalent to half of the world’s waste from 2016. However, in July of last year, China notified the WTO (WTO) on the grounds of environmental protection and health care. Said: 'The measures for restricting the import of garbage will be adopted. ' This is to prevent water and air pollution in the process of plastic cleaning and processing. Then, the Chinese government has banned the import of 24 solid wastes such as waste plastics since January this year.
Previously, China has been producing large quantities of cheap plastic bags. The raw materials used to produce plastics include PE (polyethylene), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PET), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyvinyl chloride (PS) and other chemical materials. The ban on the import of waste plastics can only lead to an increase in the import of these products.
The effect of this measure has immediately emerged. This year, the export volume of Korean-origin chemical products is increasing. According to the statistics of the Korea Trade Association, the net export of polyethylene (PE) was 199,000 tons in January this year, a year-on-year increase. 9.2%. PP and PET raw material PTA also increased by 6.6% and 21.7% respectively in the same period.
These products are mainly produced by major large-scale chemical companies in Korea. It is expected that most chemical companies with NCC, such as LG Chemical, Lotte Chemical, SK Integrated Chemicals, Hanwha Total, and KNOC, will benefit.
Korean securities researcher explained: 'With the strengthening of China's environmental protection, in order to meet the new production demand, it is expected that the price of PE-based chemical products will rise,' 'it is expected that domestic pure chemical companies will benefit.'
Lotte Chemical, Ulsan, Korea