The recently revealed December import figures by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TSI) show that Turkey’s overall plastics imports hit an all time high in 2012 with a figure of more than 4,300,000 tons, displaying an increase of 9% when compared to 2011.
The most imported product in the Turkish plastics market was homo PP, as was the case in previous years, as per the pricing service of ChemOrbis. The overall homo PP imports in 2012 jumped by 15% year over year to more than 1,210,000 tons with Saudi Arabia constituting almost half of the overall imports followed by relatively smaller stakes by India and Greece.When looking at the imports by month, the greatest amount of imports were made in March with a monthly figure of more than 115,000 tons, hitting a record on a monthly basis.
In terms of volumes, the second largest imported product was PVC with more than 724,000 tons of imports finding their way to Turkey. In a year over year comparison, Turkey’s total PVC imports appear to be down by 3% for that year while a record high on a monthly basis was achieved in January 2012 with more than 87,000 tons of PVC being cleared from the customs. Turkey’s main PVC supplier continued to be the US with more than 176,000 tons of imports, followed by France and Mexico.
The overall HDPE imports of Turkey rose by 9% in 2012 year on year to more than 655,000 tons with the top three suppliers being listed as Saudi Arabia, Iran and India. Like in the PVC market, LLDPE imports slightly shrank by 3% to 300,000 tons in 2012 when compared to 2011. Saudi Arabia overtook its competitors noticeably as it held slightly more than half of the overall imports. Again similar to PVC, a record high level of imports was seen on a monthly basis with more than 35,000 tons of import LLDPE cargoes entering the country in January 2012. Meanwhile, Turkey’s total LDPE imports jumped by 11% on a yearly basis to more than 230,000 tons in 2012. Saudi Arabia was unsurprisingly the main supplier, followed closely by Qatar and Israel.
In the PS market, total imports in 2012 were up by 6% when compared to 2011 to more than 284,000 tons, as per ChemOrbis. Belgium maintained its place at the top of the list for main PS suppliers with around 110,000 tons of imports. The difference between the next two largest suppliers, namely Thailand and India, was wide throughout last year.
