China Cotton Textile Association

Import and export of PFY both declined in Jun. Jun PFY export declined by 6.6% on the month but rose by 7.6% on the year to 210.4kt in Jun. In Jan-Jun, export of PFY amounted to 1326.5kt, up 11.7% y-o-y.

Imports of PFY totaled 8,165mt in Jun, down by 24% m-o-m and 22.5% y-o-y respectively, and amounted to 52,986mt in Jan-Jun, 2019, down by 15% y-o-y.

As for net export, Jun net export of PFY totaled 202.3kt, up 9.27% compared with the same period of last year, and approached 1273.5kt in Jan-Jun, 2019, up 13.15% on the year.

Unstable international trade environment, especially the Sino-US trade conflict, impacted PFY imports and exports to a certain extent, particularly on exports of polyester industrial yarn. Exports of PIY accounted for around 30% of the total production.

Imports of PIY totaled 7,107mt in Jan-Jun, 2019, down 27.6% on the year, and exports of PIY approached 215,233mt in Jan-Jun, 2019, down 6.5% on the year.

US was the biggest export market for PIY in recent years, occupying around 25% of the total, and remained the top one in the first half of 2019, possessing around 14%.

As for the overall outlook in the second half of 2019, uncertainties including unsteady international trade environment and the exchange rate issue still exist. PFY export is estimated to be around 2,550kt throughout 2019, up by 12% compared with 2,270kt in 2018. With increasing domestic capacity, domestic PFY plants are anticipated to show higher intention to export. Besides, the capacity expansion on upstream market like PX and PTA is supposed to drag down the PFY export cost.

PFY imports are estimated to be around 11kt by the end of 2019, down by 1kt compared with 2018, when domestic demand is anticipated to be plain in the second half of year, global economy outlook is gloomy and some new PFY units are scheduled to start operation in China.