Saudi Government Discusses PP Anti-Dumping With India On Tasnee's Behalf.

The Saudi Arabian government has taken over discussions with India on anti-dumping duty the South Asian country has imposed on National Industrialization Company, or Tasnee's, polypropylene exports, senior Tasnee officials said Wednesday on the sidelines of the Second Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association Plastics summit.

In December last year, Tasnee officials told Platts the company was directly discussing the issue with the Indian government.

"The Saudi government is continuing the discussion with India's Ministry of Commerce and Industries," one of the senior Tasnee officials said.

Another official added that Tasnee continues to export PP into India without any duties and expects the discussion with India to come to a favorable conclusion soon. "We don't see much substance in the anti-dumping case that has been imposed against us by India."

Following an order issued by India's Department of Revenue on July 30, 2009, tariffs on PP from Oman, Saudi Arabia and Singapore were raised to $322.7/mt to $977.67/mt. The action came as a result of a petition filed by Reliance Industries Limited, and was supported by Haldia Petrochemicals.

Oman Polypropylene was later exempted from the duty.

The duties apply to all polypropylene imports under HS codes 39021000 and 3902300, which include homopolymers as well as copolymers of propylene and ethylene, but exclude expanded polypropylene beads. Duties for Tasnee's cargoes stand at $322.57/mt.

India's polypropylene requirements are estimated at about 1.5 million mt/year, only a fraction of which is met by the Persian Gulf-based producers.

Source : platts.com