Saudi Petrochemical Makers to Take Indian Duty Dispute to WTO.

Bloomberg reported that Saudi Basic Industries Corporation plans to ask the World Trade Organization to pressure India to lift an anti dumping duty it imposed on Saudi polypropylene.

India last week levied a duty of 6.5% per tonne on Saudi exports of polypropylene products in an effort to protect its own producers of the chemical. Other Saudi manufacturers affected by the duty include Advanced Petrochemicals Co and National Industrialization Company.

A trade representative for Saudi petrochemical makers said that this is an unjust decision by India and we can’t tolerate it.

Mr Al Zamil heads the Riaydh based Export Development Center which promotes Saudi exports other than crude oil said that the next stop for Saudi petrochemical producers will be the World Trade Organization. He said that the Indian decision will not have a great financial impact on the kingdom’s producers as total petrochemical exports from Saudi Arabia to India amount to what he described as a modest USD 200 million per year. Saudi suppliers can easily shift their exports to China and other markets to avoid losses.

According to the government’s central department of statistics, the kingdom’s largest markets for non oil products in terms of value in the Q2 of 2010 were the UAE followed by China, Singapore and then India.

Mr Al Zamil said that the only people who are going to be seriously damaged now from this decision are the 600,000 Indian manufacturers who are looking forward to importing cheap polypropylene from Saudi Arabia. Saudi polypropylene makers only began exporting to India a few years ago and the duty will hinder producers from expanding sales there. The Indian market has promising potential.

Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi bank said in a report issued in August that India together with China and Brazil has huge underserved petrochemicals markets that offer a lucrative opportunity for Saudi suppliers. The Chinese government after a yearlong investigation decided last month not to impose anti dumping duties on Saudi methanol producers.

Mr Al Zamil said that we had so many claims against us in the past from many countries such as Turkey and China and not a single country was able to prove that Saudi petrochemical makers were dumping their products in their markets.

Source : steelguru.com