China lowers nylon chip imports as domestic capacity grows

25 March 2011 19:04  [Source: ICIS news]

XIAMEN, China (ICIS)--Strong Chinese demand growth for nylon chips (polyamide 6) is expected to continue into 2011, but the country’s import dependency will fall as more domestic capacity comes on stream, market sources said on Friday.

The rising demand is not the only driver behind the rapid expansion of nylon 6 capacity in China, however, as anti-dumping (ADD) tariffs implemented in April 2010 have raised the cost of nylon chip imports, market sources said.

Industry sources echoed similar sentiments on the sidelines of the 2011 CPL & PA Market Forum in Xiamen, China.

The tariffs, imposed on nylon 6 chips imported from the US, the EU, Russia and Taiwan, ranged from 4% to 96.5%, and will be levied for five years.

The country imported close to 700,000 tonnes of nylon chips in 2010, based on China’s Customs data.

That was down by 100,000 tonnes from 2009, equivalent to a 15% plunge year on year.

"We expect to see another drop of 200,000 tonnes of nylon imports coming in (China) in 2011," a major producer said.

In particular, imports from the US, EU and Russia saw significant decreases in 2010, as they were slapped with tariffs of 5.8% or higher.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s imports remained mostly steady year on year, despite the anti-dumping tariff rates of 4.0-4.3%.

Taiwan also continued to account for almost half of China’s imports.

Meanwhile, countries unaffected by the anti-dumping tariffs - such as Korea and Thailand - managed to capture strategic gains in 2010, and may continue to do so in 2011, industry sources noted.

China’s imports from Korea doubled, while the country saw a five-fold year-on-year jump from Thailand.

By: Junie Lin

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