Plastic industry in China- statistics and facts
Due to their light weight and incredible versatility, plastics have increasingly become a ubiquitous material around the world over the past seven decades. Plastics have important uses in almost all sectors, with plastic packaging as the most familiar and voluminous use of plastics. The global plastics market value was estimated to be almost 580 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, and is forecast surpass 750 billion U.S. dollars by 2028. With annual global plastic production amounting to nearly 370 million metric tons of plastics in the last few years, the industry continues to grow. China is the world's largest plastic producing nation by far. Between 2014 and 2019, China's share of global plastic materials production grew from 26 percent to 31 percent.
On the other side, imports of plastic and rubber products to China based on value had a sharp surge from 2009 to 2010, and have consistently remained within the same value range, between 75 billion U.S. dollars and 94 billion U.S. dollars, since then. Similar to exports, the main regions exporting plastic goods to China were East Asia and Pacific, followed by MENA, Europe, and Central Asia, respectively.
China's plastic trade
As the hub of manufacturing of the world, China has more than doubled its exports of plastic products in the last decade, with an export volume of over 14 million metric tons in 2019. East Asia and Pacific has imported a significant amount of the plastic and rubber products from China in terms of value. North America, as well as Europe and Central Asia followed as the next largest plastic importers from China.On the other side, imports of plastic and rubber products to China based on value had a sharp surge from 2009 to 2010, and have consistently remained within the same value range, between 75 billion U.S. dollars and 94 billion U.S. dollars, since then. Similar to exports, the main regions exporting plastic goods to China were East Asia and Pacific, followed by MENA, Europe, and Central Asia, respectively.
