Plastic export value from China 2012-2022

China, the world’s largest producer and exporter of plastics, exported 105.83 billion U.S. dollars worth of plastic materials in 2022. This was an increase of nearly seven billion U.S. dollars compared to the previous year.

Chinese plastic exports

China accounted for a 32 percent share of the global plastic material production in 2021. That was the highest share of any world region, followed by the North American countries with a combined 18 percent. As the number one producer of plastics in the world, China has the economy of scale to export plastic products in high quantities for a relatively low price. The country’s plastic export volume has steadily risen over the past decade, amounting to over 14 million metric tons in 2019, trumping all other nations.

Consumption of plastics in China

China is also the leading consumer of plastics with apparent plastics consumption amounting to over 135 million metric tons. Regardless of the plastic bans introduced by the government in 2007, plastic usage has had positive growth year on year. In addition, the year-on-year consumption growth of plastic products in China increased significantly between 2019 and 2020, going from 2.2 percent up to 12.2 percent the following year, potentially linked to the global COVID-19 pandemic.