Plastic bags from China face EU tax

(euobserver) -- EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson is set to place tariffs of 15.2 per cent on plastic bags from China and of 14.3 per cent on bags from Thailand, according to media reports.
The move follows an inquiry, which found that plastic bags were being dumped illegally into the EU.
Due to lower raw material and labour costs plastic bags imported from the Far East are estimated to be between 10 per cent and 20 per cent cheaper than those produced in Europe, with annual Chinese exports of plastic bags coming up to $300 million (┬235 million).

The inquiry followed a complaint by 30 European producers of certain plastic sacks and bags representing more than 25 per cent of the EU's production in the sector.
Although the 30 withdrew the complaint in February, French industry has kept up pressure and received backing from French transport commissioner Jacques Barrot, according to the Times.
For 30 years Mr Barrot was the president of a trade association that represents the plastics industry in his home region of Haute-Loire.

But British retailers have objected to the tax estimating the tariffs would lead to ?60 million (┬88 million) of extra cost for carrier bag users.
"The extra costs of plastic bags are just going to be passed on to consumers in higher food and clothes bills. Anti-dumping measures always hit consumers' pockets," said conservative British MEP and member of the European Parliament's international trade committee, Syed Kamall.
Last week three US producers of polyester fiber also filed an anti-dumping duty petition against China, saying Chinese sales at unfair prices are hurting the US industry.

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SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Asian paraxylene (PX) market players are facing a potential ⌠non-settlement for the benchmark October Asia Contract Price (ACP), market sources said on Friday.

⌠Continued negotiations during the EPCA failed to yield any possibilities for a settlement, said a source familiar with the negotiations.
A sole settlement between Japan's Idemitsu Kosan and China's Zhejiang Yisheng Petrochemicals was heard at $1,620/tonne (┬1,198/tonne) CFR (cost & freight) Asia.
Other key buyers said the settled price is too high as the margins for the downstream purified terephthalic acid (PTA) producers are thin.

ExxonMobil and South Korea's S-Oil are looking to settle their October PX ACP at $1,620/tonne CFR Asia and $1,630/tonne CFR Asia respectively, but continue to face resistance from key buyers, according to sources.
Japan's JX Nippon Oil & Energy and Idemitsu Kosan have ceased their ACP negotiations with their respective customers and are looking towards published spot prices for contract settlements.

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SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Marubeni Trading Corp has signed an agreement with Kazakhstan's national chemical firm United Chemical Company (UCC) to study and develop a series of chemical projects in the central Asian country, the Japanese trading firm said on Friday.

⌠By concluding [the] Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Cooperation, both UCC and Marubeni acknowledge each other as strategic partners and will jointly proceed with study and development of a series of chemical projects, the company said in a statement.
The MOU between the two firms was signed on 6 October this year, the company said.

⌠Marubeni will contribute to the development of chemical industry in Kazakhstan by utilizing several functions such as investment, finance, products off-taking and plant construction, it added.
UCC was established in 2009 to develop the chemical industry in the oil and gas rich country, according to Marubeni.

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HOUSTON (ICIS)--US propylene contract prices for October settled down 14 cents/lb from September, market participants said on Thursday.
Market participants earlier this week predicted a substantial drop in propylenecontract prices as a result of a build-up in refinery grade propylene (RGP) inventories.

The settlement brings the polymer-grade propylene (PGP) contract down to 64 cents/lb ($1,411/tonne, ┬1,058/tonne) and chemical-grade propylene (CGP) down to 62.50 cents/lb.
RGP accounts for 60% of the US propylene market. The product traded last week as low as 55 cents/lb, down from 64 cents/lb a week earlier.
RGP bids were heard as low as 45 cents/lb on Wednesday.

US propylene contracts usually settle near the beginning of the month to which they apply.
US propylene contracts for September rolled over from August in a settlement that kept polymer-grade propylene (PGP) at 78.00 cents/lb and chemical-grade propylene (CGP) at 76.50 cents/lb.
Major US producers of PGP and CGP include Chevron Phillips Chemical, Enterprise Products,ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell, Petrologistics and Shell Chemical.
The main buyers include Dow Chemical, INEOS, Ascend Performance Materials and Total.

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(China in the news) -- China last year overtook Europe as the world's largest producer of plastics, with the eurozone slump continuing to deepen the divide, a recent study shows.
According to the report carried out on behalf of the industry's trade association, Plastics Europe, a two-percent cut in European plastics jobs and continued company closures meant that the old continent lost its pole position to China.

"The European Union has traditionally been an important net exporter of plastics and plastic products. This trade balance grew by over 100 percent between 2000 and 2010, reaching a total trade surplus of ┬15.7 billion in 2010. Despite a shrinking workforce and losing the number-one production position to China, the European plastics industry continues to be a key contributor to EU trade surplus," the report reads.

Europe accounted for 57 million tonnes (22 percent) of the global consumption last year, while China claimed 23.5 percent of the world production of plastics. But the Asian country also continued to import plastic raw material from Europe.
In a positive development, the amount of recycled and recovered plastics in 2010 increased by an average 9.3 percent year on year across the 27 EU countries, Norway and Switzerland. This figure is equal to 58 percent of all used plastics.

"The recycled quantity increased by 8.7 percent thanks to stronger activity from citizens, packaging collection schemes and recycling companies," the report notes, adding that the use of plastics in energy recovery also increased by almost ten percent.
One of the most dreaded plastic products for the environment - the ubiquitous plastic bag - is far from being on the decrease and the EU is now reviewing whether it should lift dumping restrictions on Chinese and Thai exporters. The measure was imposed in 2006 in order to protect European plastic bag producers such as France's Groupe Barbier and Spain's Plasbel.


When imposing the anti-dumping duties five years ago, the EU said Chinese and Thai exporters increased their combined share of the EU plastic-bag market to 18 percent in the 12 months through March 2005 from 14 percent in 2001.


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