In May this year, China’s exports of polyester productsimproved marginally with all products increasing month-on-month. Year-on-year, non-fiber products such as bottle-grade PET still performed best, while filament continued to be the main drag.

According to customs data, the total export volume of polyester products by China in May increased by 174,000 tons Y-o-Y and 75,000 tons M-o-M showing significant improvement compared to the previous month.

From January to May, the total export volume of polyester increased by 359,000 tons Y-o-Y to 5.024 million tons. Due to the decline in filament exports, the year-on-year increment in polyester exports this year remains relatively low compared to the same period in previous years.

In May, filament exports increased month-on-month but continued to decline year-on-year. From January to May, filament exports decreased by 131,000 tons Y-o-Y

During the month, China’s export of polyester filament yarn to India decreased by 62,000 tons Y-o-Y while increasing by 4,000 tons M-o-M to 12,000 tons. China's polyester filament exports to other countries were 326,000 tons, a Y-o-Y increase of 36,000 tons and aM-o-M increase of 14,000 tons.

Among the main destination countries, the five countries with the most significant year-on-year increment in May were Pakistan and Vietnam, while from January to May, Vietnam and Russia showed the largest contributions.

Since the end of last year, bottle-grade PET exports have started to increase significantly and have maintained a good order-taking trend since then. In April and May, sea freight shipments slowed down due to container shortages, but the year-on-year increment for bottle-grade PET remained significant compared to other products.