By Malini Hariharan
Indian polypropylene (PP) demand continues to remain strong with most end-use sectors showing good growth and it is local producers who are catering to the additional requirement.
Polypropylene (PP) demand is estimated to have expanded by 13% to 809,000 tonnes during April-July, reports my colleague Prema Viswanathan on ICIS news.
But import volumes have dropped to 114,000 tonnes from 182,000 tonnes during the same period last year.
Reliance’s new 900,000 tonnes/year plant at Jamanagar has no doubt boosted domestic supply. But exporters to the country pointed out that provisional anti-dumping duties (ADD) on product from Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Oman had been a major deterrent.
With final duties due to be announced very soon (possibly next Monday) import volumes are likely to fall further during the rest of the year.
Besides these three countries India is also investigating PP exports from South Korea, Taiwan and the US. Provisional ADD against these three countries are likely to be announced in September, said an industry source.
And domestic supply will be even higher this year with the start of Indian Oil Corp’s (IOC) 600,000 tonnes/year plant. The company has yet to fully stabilise operations at its new cracker and derivatives complex but volumes have started flowing into the market. The company has also exported small volumes to Pakistan across the land border. If this proves to be successful Pakistan would give a ready outlet for the surplus PP that has been added to the Indian market this year.