GUANGZHOU, CHINA (June 13, 9:45 a.m. ET) -- China faces a trade deficit of plastics machinery, even though its export volume is three times the import volume. The key is price differences, said the China Plastics Machinery Industry Association.

China exported 44,493 units of plastics machines in 2010, with a total contract value of $1.14 billion. During the same period, it imported 14,961 units of plastics machines but with a total contract value of $20.07 billion.

“Although the export volume was as much as three times of import volume, export value was just about 57 percent of import value,” said Qian Yaoen, executive vice president of CPMIA. He spoke at a May 16 industry meeting in Guangzhou.

“Average price of an imported machine was about five times that of an exported machine, resulting in a trade deficit of about $0.9 billion,” he added.

In terms of volume, Japan was the largest plastics machinery exporter to mainland China, followed by Taiwan, German, Korea, and the U.S. In terms of contract value, the top five exporters were Japan, German, Taiwan, Italy and Korea.

Chinese made plastics machinery mainly went to developing countries, Qian said. The top ten destinations by volume Brazil, Iran, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Russia and Japan.