PFY exports still inch up in 2020

According to the latest statistics, PFY exports amounted to 2711kt in 2020, up by 21.2kt or 0.79% on the year; imports of PFY decreased by 23.4kt or 21.93% on the year to 83.4kt in 2020. Net exports of PFY approached 296.9kt in Dec, up 23.98% on the year, and totaled 2627.7kt in 2020, up by 1.73% y-o-y.

In 2020, due to the impact of the pandemic, overseas demand has declined, and PFY exports have experienced negative growth for the first time in the past five years. Demand shrank in the first half of 2020, with PFY exports down by 14.88% or 197.4kt to 1129.2kt; external demand recovered in the second half of 2020, starting filling the gap in H1 2020. PFY exports approached 1581.9kt in July-December, up by 16.04% or 218.6kt compared with the same period of last year.

In recent years, export volume of polyester filament yarn has increased, and its international influence has increased year by year.

Judging from the situation in recent years, the development of textile market was very rapid in some former PFY major export destinations such as Vietnam. Vietnam, Mexico and India imposed anti-dumping duty on PFY originated from China in 2020. Vietnam, as a country highly relying on raw material from China, imposed anti-dumping investigation on Chinese textile industry for the first time, having profound influence. India has made final anti-dumping determination: it will continue levy anti-dumping duty for 5 years and the rate is at US$547/mt. Turkey made the affirmative final judgment of the first anti-dumping sunset review in January 2021, and continued to impose anti-dumping duties on the products involved for a period of five years, with China's anti-dumping duties ranging from US$0.25/kg to US$0.30/kg. At present, China is still the world's first target country for initiating trade remedies, and such incidents will continue to occur in the future.

With weakening influence of the pandemic and the recovery of the global economy, it is expected that PFY exports will rebound in 2021.