Scrap Plastic Exports by the U.S. Declined 27%

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The trade statistics published by the U.S. Census Bureau for the initial eight-month period of the current year denotes substantial decline in exports of plastic waste and scrap by the country. The exports totaled $334.09 million through August 2018, significantly down by 26.61% when matched with the previous year. The U.S. exports of plastic scrap had totaled $455.2 million in Jan-Aug ’17.

The top five foreign markets of U.S. scrap plastic export were Malaysia, Canada, Thailand, India and Hong Kong, in the same order. The exports to these top five foreign markets totaled $206.86 million, thereby accounting for just less than 62% of all U.S. shipments during the eight-month period of the year.

The top export destination of U.S. plastic scrap was Malaysia. The country received nearly 16% of the total plastic scrap exported by the U.S. The Malaysian imports totaled $52.07 million, soaring by nearly 285% over the previous year. The imports by Canada totaled $47.10 million, followed by Thailand in third position, importing $37.33 million of plastic waste and scrap from the U.S. The other two key export destination markets were India ($35.39 million) and Hong Kong ($34.96 million).

Meantime, the U.S. scrap plastic imports surged higher by nearly 14% during the initial eight months of the year to $161.9 million. The shipments by Mexico-the top supplier totaled $67.17 million, accounting for nearly 41% of all U.S. imports. The other major sources of import were Canada ($32.08 million) and China ($7.33 million).