SunSirs: Plastics and Rubber Industries Bulk Commodity Intelligence (March 13, 2026)

Macroeconomics

1. [Mexico Tariffs] The Mexican government has officially announced the formal incorporation of temporary tariff measures into its *General Import and Export Tax Law*. These measures impose additional import duties on goods originating from countries with which Mexico has not signed a free trade agreement. The scope covers 1,463 specific tariff codes, with rates reaching as high as 50%. As a major source of imports for Mexico, China has been designated as a key target of these adjustments, with applicable tariff rates raised to a range of 35% to 45%.

2. [U.S. Trade Investigations] The United States is set to launch two new trade investigations into "industrial overcapacity" involving 16 major trading partners, including China. According to officials from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), these investigations could potentially lead to the imposition of new tariffs.

3. [U.S. Initial Jobless Claims] In the U.S. last week, the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits edged down by 1,000 to 213,000—a figure slightly lower than market expectations.

Plastics and Rubber

1. [PE] March 12: Updates on Maoming Petrochemical's PE facilities—the No. 1 LDPE unit was scheduled for a planned shutdown of 3–5 days starting March 11; the No. 2 LDPE unit has switched production to grade 2520D; the full-density unit is producing grade M2720A; and the HDPE unit is producing grade 5502LW.

2. [Natural Rubber] March 12: Market trends for natural rubber raw materials in Thailand's production regions remained stable with an upward bias. Smoked sheets were quoted at 73.60 THB/kg, up 0.40 THB/kg; latex was quoted at 70.60 THB/kg, up 0.40 THB/kg; and cup lump was quoted at 61.50 THB/kg, up 0.10 THB/kg.

3. [Natural Rubber] According to data released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia on March 12, natural rubber exports in January 2026 declined by 5.3% year-on-year to 41,983 tons, while increasing by 30.6% month-on-month. Of this total, 40.3% was exported to China, followed by the UAE (15.2%), Germany (13.6%), the United States (5.6%), and Brazil (3.6%).

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