Australia has already lost domestic virgin polyethylene. The last 15 years saw local manufacturers of virgin PET, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, PS and EPS resins end production. From October 2024, the only major resin type still produced in Australia is polypropylene. A China trade stop does not bring that polyethylene plant back.
dcceew.gov.au
Prior to April 2024, Qenos was the only manufacturer of polythene in Australia and employed 800 people over two sites in Botany, NSW and Altona, Vic. Qenos employed 800 people over two sites before polythene manufacturing ended. The closure is the end of polythene manufacturing in Australia. Alkathene was LDPE. Alkatuff was LLDPE and HDPE. Ethylene came from ethane piped from South Australia.
botanyindustrialpark.com.au
The calculated unspecified share of Australian polyethylene imports was 89.2 percent. The disclosed China line is not a usable share of supply. Australian polyethylene imports were 530,062,000 kilograms.
wits.worldbank.org
Finished packing articles are a named China problem. China supplied 643,754.77 thousand U.S. dollars of plastic packing articles. The calculated China share of Australian plastic packing-article imports was 57.5 percent. Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand, the United States, and Vietnam keep shipping.
wits.worldbank.org
Imported finished and semi-finished goods were 61 percent of Australian plastics consumption. Local manufacturing using virgin resin, local or imported, was 29 percent. Local manufacturing using recyclate was 10 percent. Australia consumed 4.2 million tonnes of plastic products and packaging.
dcceew.gov.au
Homopolymer polypropylene still runs at Geelong if the refinery supplies propylene. Viva Energy is the sole manufacturer of polypropylene in Australia. Heterophasic and random copolymers are imported. Polyethylene is imported. That is the resin that continues when China trade stops, and it is not polyethylene.
vivaenergy.com.auvivaenergy.com.au
The national plastics recovery rate was 16.1 percent. Flexible plastics reprocessing capacity was 7 percent of flexible packaging placed on the market. Neither rate backfills a stop in Chinese packing articles.
dcceew.gov.auapco.org.au
No Australian monthly or weekly polymer, resin, or packaging price was opened. Plastics in primary forms increased by 26.3 per cent for the June quarter. That ABS print is a quarterly import-price shock from the Strait of Hormuz closure, not a China-customer analog, and it is not a weekly price. The calculated one-month resin-price increase was 8.8 percent. That U.S. index is a foreign analog and it is not the only figure in the 0-3 month band. The opened Australian week-scale analog is the Geelong notice that the timeframe to resume normal production is expected to be between one and two weeks.
data.bls.govabs.gov.auannouncements.asx.com.au
Polypropylene homopolymer can continue at Geelong. The current polymers page says homopolymer resin is produced locally and heterophasic copolymers and random copolymers are imported, and that polyethylene is imported, including low, linear low, and high density. The 13 Apr 2022 announcement said LBA employs approximately 100 people and serves more than 60 customers, and that the Geelong refinery's propylene is the feedstock. LBA employs approximately 100 people. Those headcount and customer counts are the 2022 announcement, not a current census. The same announcement called LBA the country's only polypropylene manufacturer.
vivaenergy.com.auvivaenergy.com.au
Polyethylene does not continue as a domestic product. Botany says operations at the Olefines and Polythene plants have ceased, with make-safe completion expected for mid-2025, and that since early December 2024 the Olefines and Alkatuff flares have been shut down. Deeds of company arrangement were executed on 13 June 2024. The replacement tonnes are the import file, and 89.2 percent of the import value has no named partner.
botanyindustrialpark.com.auwits.worldbank.org
Polypropylene imports are a supplement, not the domestic plant. Imports were 203,295.09 thousand U.S. dollars and 152,396,000 kilograms. Unspecified was 129,472.82 thousand U.S. dollars, a calculated 63.7 percent. Korea was 24,607.43, a calculated 12.1 percent. Thailand was 16,362.04, a calculated 8.0 percent. The United States was 10,683.02, a calculated 5.3 percent. Singapore was 10,353.55, a calculated 5.1 percent. China was 1,674.25, a calculated 0.8 percent of the reported value. The same warning applies: unspecified hides the true China share. Korea, Thailand, the United States, and Singapore are the named partners that keep shipping on the disclosed rows.
wits.worldbank.org
Film and sheet have named alternates. HS 3920 imports were 775,101.00 thousand U.S. dollars. China was 196,429.35 and 71,089,700 kilograms, a calculated 25.3 percent of value. Malaysia was 119,406.09 and 66,200,100 kilograms. The calculated Malaysia share of Australian plastic film and sheet imports was 15.4 percent. Thailand was 56,525.02, a calculated 7.3 percent. The United States was 45,001.31, a calculated 5.8 percent. Other Asia, nes was 28,748.02, a calculated 3.7 percent. Malaysia and Thailand keep shipping film after a China stop. The China film share is large and is still well below the packing-article share.
wits.worldbank.org
Machines are a China problem with a German alternate. HS 8477 imports were 191,420.86 thousand U.S. dollars. China was 80,816.67. The calculated China share of Australian plastics-machinery imports was 42.2 percent. Germany was 26,078.25, a calculated 13.6 percent. Italy was 15,609.43, a calculated 8.2 percent. The United States was 13,464.60, a calculated 7.0 percent. Other Asia, nes was 5,751.14, a calculated 3.0 percent. Germany, Italy, and the United States keep shipping machines.
wits.worldbank.org
A pyrolysis trial is not a national polyethylene replacement. Viva said it processed more than 9.5 tonnes of plastic pyrolysis oil at the Geelong refinery as a demonstration. That mass is a trial quantity against polyethylene imports of 530,062,000 kilograms.
vivaenergy.com.auwits.worldbank.org