PVC Import and Export Data to 2025, with a 2026 Monthly Update to August: EU Imports Up 79% as Four Origins Face an Anti-Dumping Probe

Summary. EU27 imports of polyvinyl chloride from outside the bloc reached 666,718 tonnes in the twelve months to August 2026, 79.3% more than the 371,852 tonnes of the preceding twelve months, while the average customs unit value fell 9.5% to 776 EUR per tonne. Four origins supplied almost all of the increase: South Korea went from 82,429 to 253,492 tonnes, China from 32,512 to 99,774, Taiwan from 28,071 to 78,083 and Mexico from 130,392 to 135,775, taking their combined share from 73.5% to 85.1%. Prices did not fall in a straight line: the import unit value bottomed at 677 EUR/t in February 2026, then reached 933 in June and 954 in July before easing to 934 in August. On 23 September 2026 the European Commission opened an anti-dumping investigation into exactly those four suppliers, and six days later Westlake said it will close its 165,000 tonne Cologne PVC plant. Exports fell 13.6% to 965,442 tonnes, so the EU remains a large net exporter, but the surplus narrowed from 746,016 to 298,724 tonnes.

Data updated: 2026-10-19

Latest 12 months: monthly import and export volumes

The table covers September 2025 to August 2026, the most recent twelve complete months in Eurostat Comext dataset DS-045409, which carries EU27 extra-EU trade in CN 39041000 and was last refreshed on 16 October 2026. CN 39041000 is the single tariff line for polyvinyl chloride not mixed with any other substance; it includes suspension and emulsion (paste) resin alike, which matters for the price reading below. Extra-EU means the partner aggregate EXT_EU27_2020, so shipments between member states are excluded throughout.

Month	Imports (t)	Import value (EUR m)	Import unit value (EUR/t)	Exports (t)	Export unit value (EUR/t)
2025-09	57,840	43.1	746	93,977	852
2025-10	54,408	40.5	744	90,088	876
2025-11	49,086	35.8	730	92,812	827
2025-12	42,940	30.3	707	83,091	769
2026-01	59,819	40.9	684	85,568	807
2026-02	60,141	40.7	677	83,982	813
2026-03	44,286	31.0	699	82,582	910
2026-04	50,632	36.5	721	81,920	1,099
2026-05	70,931	52.3	737	63,900	1,203
2026-06	53,480	49.9	933	70,506	1,198
2026-07	58,552	55.9	954	69,694	1,062
2026-08	64,601	60.4	934	67,322	1,015
12-month total / weighted average	666,718	517.2	776	965,442	938

Source: Eurostat Comext DS-045409, EU27 extra-EU monthly trade in CN 39041000 (flows 1 and 2). Unit value = value ÷ net weight.

Volumes are erratic month to month — 42,940 tonnes in December 2025 against 70,931 in May 2026 — but the trend is up: March to August 2026 averaged 57,080 tonnes a month against 54,039 in the six months before. Prices fell until February, then turned. A buyer who annualised the February unit value of 677 EUR/t would have understated the August cost by 38%; one who extrapolated the June step of 26.6% month on month would have overstated August, which came in 2.0% below July.

The bill matters too. The latest twelve months cost 517.2 million EUR for 666,718 tonnes, against 318.6 million EUR for 371,852 tonnes a year earlier: spend rose 62.3% while volume rose 79.3%. The gap is the 9.5% fall in average unit value that the surge bought, and it is now being given back.

Where the tonnes came from: four origins in one direction

Origins are ranked by tonnage in the latest window; intra-EU partners and aggregate codes are excluded.

Origin	2024-09 to 2025-08 (t)	Unit value (EUR/t)	2025-09 to 2026-08 (t)	Unit value (EUR/t)	Change (t)	Share of latest
South Korea	82,429	809	253,492	751	+171,063	38.0%
Mexico	130,392	794	135,775	729	+5,382	20.4%
China	32,512	700	99,774	705	+67,262	15.0%
Taiwan	28,071	755	78,083	681	+50,012	11.7%
Norway	50,288	1,052	43,684	1,096	−6,605	6.6%
United States	10,129	1,640	16,880	1,275	+6,751	2.5%
United Kingdom	14,531	894	11,839	892	−2,692	1.8%
Turkiye	13,176	892	7,923	956	−5,252	1.2%
Colombia	3,008	858	6,970	830	+3,962	1.0%
Thailand	3,082	923	2,921	850	−162	0.4%
Other origins	4,243	—	9,377	—	+5,135	1.4%
Extra-EU total	371,852	857	666,718	776	+294,866	100%

Source: Eurostat Comext DS-045409, EU27 extra-EU imports of CN 39041000 by partner, summed over each window. Intra-EU partners and aggregate codes excluded.

The top five origins moved from 87.0% to 91.6% of the book and the Herfindahl index from 2,074 to 2,277, but direction matters more than concentration. Every origin outside those four that gained volume sold cheaper than before — the US unit value fell 22.3%, Colombia’s 3.3% — and the four that added volume at scale did the same: Korea −7.2%, Mexico −8.2%, Taiwan −9.8%, China broadly flat at 705 EUR/t. This is not a market where demand pulled product in; product was pushed in, and the push was priced. Korea’s addition alone, 171,063 tonnes, equals 46.0% of the entire previous year’s import book.

Price: the February trough and the second-quarter turn

The monthly import unit value fell in fourteen of the seventeen months to February 2026, from 945 EUR/t in September 2024 to 677, then rose in four of five monthly steps to 934 in August, a 38.1% recovery. A blended customs unit value can rise because goods got dearer or because a dearer mix arrived, so the two must be separated. Holding the earlier window’s origin weights fixed and applying the latest window’s unit values gives 814.9 EUR/t against an actual 775.8: the price effect is −41.9 EUR/t and the mix effect −39.2 EUR/t. Both pushed the twelve-month average down.

Within the latest window the turn appears at origin level: from May to June 2026 Korea went from 726 to 996 EUR/t, Mexico from 632 to 790, Taiwan from 1,252 to 1,355 and China from 639 to 652. That is a market-wide repricing, not one cargo, and it appears on the export side too: 910 EUR/t in March 2026, 1,203 in May, 1,015 in August. Repricing in both directions of trade points to a feedstock and energy move, not a data error.

One qualification belongs in the record: CN 39041000 does not separate suspension from emulsion (paste) resin, which carries a much higher unit value at small volumes — Norway, a specialist supplier, cleared at 1,096 EUR/t against 776 for the total. A shift toward paste grades can move the blended figure without any commodity price change, so ask for the grade split before using these unit values in a contract.

Exports: a smaller surplus, sold closer to home

The EU remains a wide net exporter in volume, but the margin closed from 746,016 to 298,724 tonnes in a year, and destinations are stable in rank while shrinking in size.

Destination	2024-09 to 2025-08 (t)	Unit value (EUR/t)	2025-09 to 2026-08 (t)	Unit value (EUR/t)	Change (t)	Share of latest
Turkiye	370,128	771	299,413	718	−70,715	31.0%
United Kingdom	203,918	1,132	205,974	1,192	+2,056	21.3%
India	61,473	815	54,295	736	−7,178	5.6%
United States	49,853	1,441	47,714	1,436	−2,140	4.9%
Algeria	54,138	777	41,880	747	−12,258	4.3%
Switzerland	43,663	972	40,720	1,068	−2,943	4.2%
Brazil	28,967	849	30,612	831	+1,645	3.2%
Egypt	37,662	746	29,997	673	−7,665	3.1%
Canada	19,091	1,084	28,609	993	+9,518	3.0%
Serbia	39,314	961	24,017	1,049	−15,297	2.5%
Ukraine	32,641	885	16,433	947	−16,208	1.7%
Other destinations	177,020	—	145,778	—	−31,242	15.1%
Extra-EU total	1,117,868	930	965,442	938	−152,426	100%

Source: Eurostat Comext DS-045409, EU27 extra-EU exports of CN 39041000 by partner, summed over each window. Intra-EU partners and aggregate codes excluded.

The Turkish line does most of the work: a 70,715 tonne loss is 46.4% of the total export decline, at a lower unit value of 718 against 771 EUR/t. Two neighbours took part of the difference — the United Kingdom held its volume and paid 5.3% more, and Canada added 9,518 tonnes, up 49.9%. Egypt, which faced duties on its own exports into the EU from January 2025, is now a customer at 29,997 tonnes and does not appear as a measurable origin in either import window. Together the two directions describe a squeeze, not a collapse: the EU lost volume at home to imports priced below what those origins charged a year earlier, while its export book shrank in its nearest large market.

What changed on the policy side — analysis and outlook

Analysis. The customs numbers trace what trade defence follows. On 23 September 2026 the European Commission published a notice of initiation of an anti-dumping proceeding concerning imports of certain PVC originating in China, Korea, Mexico and Taiwan; the complaint was lodged on 10 August 2026 by the PVC Trade Committee. The product scope is narrow: polyvinyl chloride polymerised through suspension (S-PVC) and bulk or mass polymerisation (M-PVC), in pure form and not mixed, including commodity, extender and specialty S-PVC, but excluding PVC polymerised through emulsion (E-PVC). The notice places the product under CN code ex 3904 10 00 (TARIC 3904 10 00 21 and 3904 10 00 81), and records that for China the complaint relies on significant distortions in ethylene and calcium carbide, with Malaysia proposed as representative country for normal value.

Two things follow. No duty exists yet: an initiation is an investigation, not a measure, and the notice imposes nothing. And the four countries named are the four that supplied the increase documented above — Korea +171,063 tonnes, China +67,262, Taiwan +50,012, Mexico +5,382. That is the same set of flows seen from the other end of the file.

Analysis. The policy sequence is layered and easy to confuse. Egypt and the United States have faced definitive anti-dumping duties since 10 January 2025, at 74.2% to 100.1% for Egypt and 58% to 77% for the United States, after an investigation found the EU industry — 4,000 direct jobs across seven member states — losing market share; the Commission put the EU PVC market at EUR 3.5 billion. Egypt’s result is visible in the trade data as an extinction. The US result is not: deliveries into the EU rose 66.6% to 16,880 tonnes at a unit value 22.3% lower than a year earlier. Duties bite by producer and product scope, not by country flag.

Outlook. On 30 September 2026 INEOS, whose Inovyn business is one of the EU’s largest PVC producers, welcomed the investigation and stated that it followed a 100% increase in PVC imports in twelve months. That is a company statement, not a customs series: the series here measures +79.3% for CN 39041000. Quote the customs figure, and attribute the 100% to INEOS.

Outlook. Supply is being withdrawn while imports are investigated. On 29 September 2026 Westlake announced the closure of its Cologne PVC plant, approximately 165,000 tonnes a year, expected to stop in the first quarter of 2027, citing weak demand, elevated energy costs and import pressure from Asia, with pre-tax charges of about USD 205 million. The same statement attributes second-quarter 2026 PVC and polyethylene price increases to the onset of the Iran conflict and reports them moderating in the third quarter — the most direct public explanation available for the April-to-June turn in the unit-value series, and one that comes from a producer rather than a price reporting agency.

The annual backdrop, 2020 to 2025

The monthly window explains the present; the annual panel shows what it deviates from. In the fixed panel of the four economies that reported a net weight for PVC exports in all six years — the United States, China, Turkiye and Mexico — exports rose from 3,159,485 tonnes in 2020 to 7,567,316 in 2025, up 139.5% or 19.1% a year, while the panel unit value fell 20.3% from 846 to 675 USD per tonne. Almost all of the increase is Chinese: 653,539 tonnes in 2020 against 3,942,363 in 2025, at 628 USD/t, the lowest in the panel and 30.2% below its own 2020 level. US exports rose from 2,466,473 to 3,547,128 tonnes and their unit value fell 13.5% to 719 USD/t; Turkiye and Mexico are small at 63,300 and 14,526 tonnes in 2025.

Korea and Taiwan are absent from this panel for data reasons, not because they are small: Korea’s 2023 record carries a value but no net weight, and Taiwan had not reported 2025 when this was compiled. Both are excluded rather than estimated. 2025 is first-reported in this source and subject to revision, which is why the conclusions above rest on the Eurostat monthly series.

Year	Panel exports (t)	Value (USD)	Unit value (USD/t)
2020	3,159,485	2.67 bn	846
2021	3,796,487	5.39 bn	1,419
2022	4,644,071	5.90 bn	1,271
2023	5,511,944	4.57 bn	829
2024	5,918,398	4.60 bn	778
2025	7,567,316	5.10 bn	675

Source: UN Comtrade, annual HS 390410 exports, world partner, reporters as listed; fixed panel of economies with a reported net weight in every year. Unit value = primary value ÷ net weight.

Eurostat’s annual series frames the same shift: extra-EU imports were 408,622 tonnes in 2024 and 498,404 in 2025, against 660,450 in 2023, while exports fell from 1,199,292 to 1,095,734 tonnes. The 2026 run rate of 666,718 tonnes over twelve months is above any of those annual figures.

Year	Extra-EU imports (t)	Import unit value (EUR/t)	Extra-EU exports (t)	Export unit value (EUR/t)
2020	373,719	763	1,494,677	822
2021	490,973	1,349	1,227,548	1,414
2022	537,255	1,498	1,075,001	1,596
2023	660,450	897	1,078,978	1,030
2024	408,622	846	1,199,292	939
2025	498,404	796	1,095,734	895

Source: Eurostat Comext DS-045409, annual frequency (freq=A), EU27 extra-EU trade in CN 39041000.

What this means for a buyer or an analyst

Volume risk has moved to the policy side: 85.1% of extra-EU imports now come from four countries under investigation, and any provisional measure would land on that 85.1%, not on the margin. The price recovery is young and partly geopolitical, and the series has already given back 2.0% between July and August. EU capacity is shrinking at the low-cost end, with 165,000 tonnes due to leave in the first quarter of 2027, so import pressure and falling domestic capacity should not be assumed to cancel out. And the tariff line blends suspension and emulsion resin while the investigation covers only S-PVC and M-PVC, so the customs unit value and the duty scope are not the same population.

For the monthly series by origin, the grade-level unit-value bands these averages hide, or the duty and landed-cost arithmetic for a specific supplier, request a sample report or a custom research brief.

The chain behind the number

PVC closes a short chain that starts with ethylene and chlorine, runs through ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride monomer, and finishes in the resin counted here. A duty on resin changes derived demand at every upstream step, so this series should be read next to the EDC and VCM pages.

Data sources

• Eurostat Comext, DS-045409 (EU trade since 1988 by HS2-4-6 and CN8), EU27 extra-EU monthly and annual trade in CN 39041000, dataset updated 16 October 2026 — https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/DS-045409/default/table (accessed 2026-10-19)
• Eurostat Comext API, DS-045409 monthly query, EU27 imports from EXT_EU27_2020, 2025-09 to 2026-08 — https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/api/comext/dissemination/statistics/1.0/data/DS-045409?format=JSON&freq=M&reporter=EU27_2020&partner=EXT_EU27_2020&product=39041000&flow=1&indicators=VALUE_IN_EUROS&indicators=QUANTITY_IN_100KG&sinceTimePeriod=2025-09&untilTimePeriod=2026-08 (accessed 2026-10-19)
• European Commission, DG Trade and Economic Security, “Commission counters dumped polyvinyl chloride from USA and Egypt”, 10 January 2025 — https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/news/commission-counters-dumped-polyvinyl-chloride-usa-and-egypt-2025-01-10_en (accessed 2026-10-19)
• Official Journal of the European Union, C/2026/4912, notice of initiation of an anti-dumping proceeding concerning imports of certain PVC originating in China, Korea, Mexico and Taiwan, 23 September 2026 — https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:C_202604912 (accessed 2026-10-19)
• INEOS, “INEOS welcomes European Commission investigation into unfair PVC imports and calls for urgent reform of EU trade defence”, 30 September 2026 — https://www.ineos.com/news/shared-news/ineos-welcomes-european-commission-investigation-into-unfair-pvc-imports-and-calls-for-urgent-reform-of-eu-trade-defence/ (accessed 2026-10-19)
• Westlake Vinnolit, “Westlake to Optimize European Chlorovinyls Footprint with Closure of Cologne PVC Plant”, 29 September 2026 — https://westlakevinnolit.com/en/westlake-to-optimize-european-chlorovinyls-footprint-with-closure-of-cologne-pvc-plant/ (accessed 2026-10-19)
• UN Comtrade public preview API, annual HS 390410 exports, reporters United States (842), China (156), Turkiye (792) and Mexico (484), 2020–2025 — https://comtradeapi.un.org/public/v1/preview/C/A/HS?includeDesc=true&reporterCode=842&period=2025&flowCode=X&cmdCode=390410&partnerCode=0 (accessed 2026-10-19)