Global Plastic Production Fell In 2020 Due To COVID Pandemic, First Time Since 2008

Global plastics production declined in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, only the third time since World War II that output has fallen.

Plastic output has only fallen twice previously, as a result of the oil crisis in 1973 and during the financial crisis in 2008.

Reuters

Worldwide output slipped to 367 million tonnes last year from 368 million in 2019, a 0.3 per cent decline, according to the industry federation PlasticsEurope.

The drop was due to “the impact of Covid-19 on the global economy”, PlasticsEurope said in a statement.

But output in China — which currently accounts for a third of global plastics production — continued to grow by 1.0 per cent.

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In Europe, production of new plastics was down 5.1 percent at 55 million tonnes last year, PlasticsEurope said.

The automobile sector, one of the biggest customers for the industry, saw its plastics consumption plunge by 18 percent in Europe in 2020, the federation calculated.