MOSCOW (MRC) -- A bill to increase the import duty on suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) to 6.5% from 1 January 2015 has been introduced into the Ukrainian Parliament, reported MRC analysts.
On 10 December 2014, a draft law No.1335 on Amendments to the Customs Tariff of Ukraine was submitted for consideration of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. This initiative provides for the separation of the commodity group -unmixed polyvinyl chloride (HS code 3904 10 00 00) into two subgroups: emulsion PVC (HS code 3904 10 00 10) and suspension PVC (HD code 3904 10 00 90). It is proposed to increase the rate of the import duty on PVC produced by the suspension method from the current zero duty to 6.5%.
The explanatory note to the bill states that the increase in the duty was due to the need to create optimal conditions in order to ensure supply of material, which is not currently produced in the country, for domestic producers of construction and other industries, as well as the need for harmonization of the Ukrainian legislation with the standards adopted in international practice.
The settlement of rates of the import duty on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) will create the same competitive conditions for both domestic and foreign producers, which corresponds to the fundamentals of a market economy.
Ukraine has SPVC production capacities at Karpatneftekhim (LUKOIL). The plant's annual production capacity is 300,000 tonnes of PVC. The production was launched in May 2011. However, the plant was shut down several times because of economic inefficiency, it was last shut down in December 2013.
As reported earlier, in 2012, Karpatneftekhim initiated an anti-dumping investigation regarding PVC imports from the US. The Commission has still not come to a definite conclusion.
According to MRC data, the overall SPVC imports to Ukraine totalled just over 101,000 tonnes over the first ten months of 2014, down by 15% year on year.
MRC