China lifts duty on OX, paraxylene, isomer-mixed xylenes from Taiwan

04-Jan-11

Effective January 1, 2010, the Chinese government is to lift duty on OX and other xylenes -- paraxylene and isomer-mixed xylenes -- produced in Taiwan. Removal of import duty on orthoxylene from Taiwan will seriously undermine the "competitiveness" of South Korean producers, as per Platts. India's Reliance Industries Ltd, which exports an average of 8,000-10,000 mt of OX into China is also expected to suffer because of the development. Earlier, China had a uniform duty of 2% on OX imports from countries across the world, excluding producers in Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and Thailand, which it did not tax for petrochemical imports. According to latest data, in November, South Korea exported 9,736 mt of OX into China as compared to 14,902 mt exported by Taiwan in the same period. India was the third largest exporter into the country in November and exported a total of 8,290 mt.