| Plastic materials refer to main petrochemicals used to make plastic products, with PE (polyethylene), PP (polypropylene), PVC (polyvinyl chloride), ABS (copolymer of acrylonitrile, butadiene, styrene) and PS (polystyrene) as the top five items in terms of consumption volume.
Taiwan's annual production capacity of plastics materials stood at 8.42 million metric tons in 2005, up from 2004's 7.53 million metric tons and including 7.97 million metric tons of general-use plastics and 450,000 metric tons of engineering plastics. Last year, the island turned out 5.72 million metric tons of plastic materials, slightly up from 2004's 5.66 million metric tons. The island exported 3.95 million metric tons and imported 430,000 metric tons of plastic materials last year.
Faced with the growing international environmental protection awareness, limited growth in the general-use plastics, and the growing difficulty in domestic expansion, local makers in the line should step up development of high value-added products, switch their low-end production lines abroad, and cooperate with foreign makers to make Taiwan become a global logistic center for plastics materials and products. |
