Prohibition on Importing Waste Plastics Dampens Imports

The PC price increased violently within 2017, and most PC market players focused on the supply side. On the one hand, the overhaul and unexpected shutdown of PC units led to the decrease in PC capacity. On the other hand, PC market players also focused on the prohibition of importing waste plastics.

On August 10, 2017, 8 kinds of waste plastics were taken in by the prohibition, including the one (HS code: 3915909000) that contains the offcuts of other plastics (not including the waste CD).

On December 14, 2017, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the prohibition on importing solid waste which can be used as feedstock. This new prohibition stipulated the detailed requirements for the solid waste importing enterprises.

On December 25, 2017, the Ministry of Environmental Protection published the name list of prohibited wastes in 2018. The import volume for HS code 3915909000 is only 2,445 mt. In 2017, the average import volume under this HS code is 134.7 kt. The import volume of this HS code has been decreasing since April.‍