Plastics and Rubber Industries Bulk Commodity Intelligence

China Macroeconomic Data

PPI: China’s producer prices for industrial products rose 3.5% year on year in July 2026, while declining 0.7% month on month. Industrial producer purchase prices increased 5.5% year on year but fell 1.0% month on month. For January–July, producer prices were up 1.8% and purchase prices increased 2.8% from the same period last year.

CPI: China’s national CPI increased 0.5% year on year in July, while falling 0.1% month on month. The average CPI for January–July was 0.9% higher year on year.

Imports & Exports: China’s foreign trade in goods totaled RMB 30.13 trillion in the first seven months of 2026, up 17.3% year on year. Exports increased 14% to RMB 17.44 trillion, while imports rose 22% to RMB 12.69 trillion, meaning imports continued to grow faster than exports.

Excavators: China sold 19,521 excavators in July, up 13.9% year on year. Domestic sales reached 7,608 units, including 41 electric excavators, up 4.13%, while exports totaled 11,913 units, including 62 electric excavators, up 21.2%. January–July sales reached 171,841 units, up 24.8%, including 86,633 domestic units (+18.8%) and 85,208 exports (+31.7%).

US Employment

Non-farm Payrolls: US non-farm payrolls declined by 23,000 in July, against market expectations for an increase of around 80,000. Previous figures were also revised lower, with May’s employment gain reduced from 129,000 to 63,000 and June’s from 57,000 to 20,000, resulting in a combined downward revision of 103,000 jobs.

Plastics & Rubber

PA66: UK recycled nylon company Epoch Biodesign acquired a Spanish PA66 polymerization plant, formerly owned by Domo Chemicals, for slightly more than €4 million. The facility has annual capacity of 52,000 tonnes and will shift toward circular-material production while retaining around 60 jobs. The company plans to introduce AI-driven enzymatic recycling technology to build a closed-loop value chain.

PVC: Several PVC plants are undergoing maintenance in China. Inner Mongolia Junzheng’s Wuda facility is scheduled for maintenance from August 10–21, while Xinzhongjia has suspended operations from August 8–20. Formosa Plastics Ningbo is also carrying out a major overhaul of its ethylene-based PVC line. Nearly 5 million tonnes of domestic PVC capacity is currently offline due to maintenance or production stoppages, keeping calcium carbide demand steady.

PE: Yan'an Energy & Chemical’s 450,000-tonne/year low-pressure PE unit began scheduled maintenance on August 3, with the work expected to continue until September 22.

Rubber: China imported 580,000 tonnes of natural and synthetic rubber in July 2026, down 8.5% year on year. January–July imports, including latex, reached 4.515 million tonnes, down 4.1% year on year.

Tires: The U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association forecast 330.3 million tire shipments in 2026, representing a 1.8% decline from 336.3 million units in 2025 and below the 332.7 million units recorded in 2019.

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