Duty hike impacts imports of polyethylene, polypropylene in Europe in January

21-Mar-14

From January 1, a revision of the EU customs regime, the Generalised Scheme of Preferences, resulted in EU customs tariffs for PE and PP rising from 3% to 6.5% for imports from Gulf Cooperation Council countries such as Saudi Arabia. The impact of the rise in duties on polyethylene and polypropylene imports was clear as EU imports in January fell compared with December, according to Eurostat data, as reported by Platts. Major GCC companies include Saudi Arabia's SABIC, Kuwait's Equate, Saudi Arabia's PetroRabigh and Qatar's Qapco. More than half of PE and PP imports into Europe come from GCC countries. Polyethylene imports were up 9.3% from January 2013 but down 35.4% from December. The biggest fall was seen in linear low density polyethylene from 46,927 tons in Jan 2013 to 43,548 tons in Jan 14 from 63,073 in Dec 2013. High density polyethylene posted a marginal increase from 91,050 tons in Jan 2013 to 116, 868 tons in Jan 2014. Polypropylene imports fell 27.4% from January 2013 and 23.2% from December- from 67,450 tons in Jan 2013 to 48,962 tons in Jan 2014.