Corrected: India revokes ADD on Saudi PP imports from 30 December 2011

03 January 2012 06:27  [Source: ICIS news]

Correction: In the ICIS news story headlined "India revokes ADD on Saudi PP imports from 30 December 2011" dated 3 January 2012, please read in the accompanying table that the capacity of Saudi Yanbu PP plant is 260,000 tonnes/year ... instead of ... 350,000 tonnes/year .... A corrected version follows.

By Ong Sheau Ling

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--India has finally lifted the anti-dumping duty (ADD) imposed on polypropylene (PP) cargoes originated or exported from Saudi Arabia with effect from last week, a move that may put pressure on the Indian market, industry players said on Tuesday.

India’s Central Board of Excise and Customs made the announcement about the lifting of the ADD on 30 December.

Saudi PP industry and government officials had long been urging New Delhi to revoke the ADD.

A total of eight Saudi companies will now enjoy zero ADD, unlike their counterparts in Singapore and Oman. (please see table below)

Previously, Saudi, Oman and Singapore’s PP products were subjected to an ADD of $28.49-323.50/tonne (€22-249/tonne), effective from 30 July 2009, for a five year period.

The statement did not announce any change in the ADD for Oman and Singapore’s PP origins or exports. It gave no other details.

The lifting of the ADD levied on Saudi PP imports will add price competition on PP products to India, which is already a net PP exporter.

“We will see some supply pressure as a result of the removal of ADD. This will weigh on prices,” a Mumbai-based trader said.

However, an Indian polyolefin producer said he did not think that “Saudi producers will dump their cargoes in India since the prices here are not that superb”.

Still there were chances that the Indian producers decide to challenge the lifting because the country is already a net exporter and will not welcome any large imports, another Indian polyolefin maker said.

“There may be a counter action by the Indian industry against this lifting of ADD,” he added.

On 3 January, a Saudi producer reduced its January offers from last week by $5-25/tonne to $1,255/tonne CFR (cost and freight) Mumbai for PP raffia materials, industry players said.

Average weekly prices of PP raffia were at $1,280/tonne CFR Mumbai, ICIS reported on 30 December.

PP producers in Saudi Arabia

Company	Location	Joint venture	Nameplate capacity (kt/yr)
Saudi European Petrochemical Co	Al Jubail	SABIC and the European Consortium	320
			320
			500
Al-waha Petrochemical Co	Al Jubail	Sahara Petrochemical Co (75%) and LyondellBasell (25%)	450
Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical Co (Yanpet)	Yanbu	SABIC and Exxonmobil	260
Saudi Kayan	Al Jubail	SABIC and Al-Kayan Petrochemical	350
Saudi Polymers Co	Al Jubail	Arabian Chevron Phillips Petrochemical (35%) and National Petrochemical (65%)	400
Saudi Polyolefins Co (SPC)	Al Jubail	National Industrialisation Co (Tasnee) and LyondellBasell	450
Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co (PetroRabigh)	Rabigh	Saudi Aramco (50%) and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical (50%)	700
Advanced Polypropylene (APC)	Al Jubail		450

($1 = €0.77)

Please visit the complete ICIS plants and projects database
For more information on PP, visit ICIS chemical intelligence
Read John Richardson and Malini Hariharan’s blog – Asian Chemical Connections

By: Ong Sheau Ling
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