PARIS — 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, an industry body said Thursday.
Output has fallen only twice previously, as a result of the oil crisis in 1973 and during the financial crisis in 2008.
Worldwide output slipped to 367 million tonnes last year from 368 million in 2019, a 0.3 percent 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 — conti…
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