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.
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.
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, while high density polyethylene posted a marginal increase.
Polypropylene imports fell 27.4% from January 2013 and 23.2% from December.
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