PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2010

MATERIAL / RECYCLING 21 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 05/10 www.petpla.net quarter of 2010. The com- pany’s plant in Spain also stopped production. This was compounded by the shutdown of the Invista Plant, resulting in a reduction of 300, 000t of the three plants in the second half of 2009. Together, these three plants had an annual capacity of 600, 000t/a. The French company Tergal also closed its Gauchy PET pro- duction plant in the autumn of 2009. Given these shutdowns, it is no surprise that imports rose significantly (see Fig. 2) South Korea – a dominant force It will come as no sur- prise that South Korea has been one of the top export- ers to the EU for a number of years. In 2002 South Korea was already supplying 122 kmt of PET to the EU**; in subsequent years quantities fluctuated between 121 kmt and 177 KMT; in 2009 the EU states imported a total of 256 kmt PET from South Korea alone. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) have developed into the second largest supplier, with EU imports accounting for 199 kmt of the total 872 kmt produced by the UAE. Oman is also making an impact on the EU statistics, currently producing 300,000t (January 2009 figures, of which 53 kmt went to the EU), and this is expected to increase to a capacity of Fig. 2: PET imports into the EU in 2009 Fig. 3: PET imports into the EU from 2007 to 2009 - biggest suppliers