H1, 2023 China Synthetic Rubber Imports Analysis
Keywords: Imports, Exports, Synthetic rubber, SBR, Trade partners
Snapshot: Russia is China’s important import trade partner of synthetic rubber. In H1, 2023, China imported around 270kt of synthetic rubber from Russia. Therein, the import volume of IIR, SBR, PBR and SBS rose notably. China’s synthetic rubber imports were analyzed as follows.
2018-2022 China Synthetic Rubber Imports from Russia by Variety
According to GACC, China’s import volume of synthetic rubber was around 630kt in H1, 2023, up over 12% Y-O-Y. The import volume of H1, 2023 surpassed that of the whole year of 2022. Therein, the imports of SBR accounted for over 28% of the total imports of synthetic rubber, ranking first. The imports of IIR and PBR took up around 21% and 18%, ranking second and third respectively. The imports of SBS saw the largest Y-O-Y increase of 5%. As seen from trade partners, the imported synthetic rubber from Russia accounted for over 42% of the total, ranking first. Other major trade partners included South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Singapore. The large trade partner Poland in the past years has been out of the top 10. Due to the change in international situations, newly added SSBR units in China and weaker overseas demand, China was still an important consumer market of synthetic rubber.
According to GACC, China imported around 82kt of IIR from Russia, up around 9% Y-O-Y. The SBS imported from Russia saw the largest change Y-O-Y. In the past years, the major consumption area of Russia’s SBS was in Europe, and nearly no SBS was exported to China. Under the change in international situations, China has been one of the most important markets of Russia’s SBS resources. This situation is expected to continue in the near term.
The import volume of SBR from Russia hit a record high. Russia is China’s important import trade partner of SBR. According to GACC, China’s average import volume of SBR from China was around 35kt in recent 10 years, ranking top 5 among China’s SBR import trade partners. Under special situations, China’s import volume of SBR from Russia was over 50kt, accounting for around 13% of China’s total SBR import volume in 2020. The import volume of SBR from Russia and its proportion both hit record highs. As seen from GACC’s data of Q1 and Q2, 2023, China imported around 54kt of SBR from Russia, up over 200% Y-O-Y, which was the highest volume since the data began.
The tire industry in a certain European country changed with the development of international situations. In H1, 2023, Russia has become China’s third largest export trade partner of tires. China’s export volume of tires to Russia increased by over 200% from 2019. This is part of the reason why China is Russia’s largest trade partner of synthetic rubber at present.
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