PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2010

MATERIAL / RECYCLING 22 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 05/10 www.petpla.net 800,000t/a during this year. The EU is a key target market for Oman (sig- nificant EU foreign trade partners are listed in Fig.3). Italy: biggest PET market, biggest PET importer According to a leading market expert, the total requirement for PET (with a viscosity number of 78 ml/g) was 2. 927 million tonnes in the 27 states of the EU and Switzerland in 2009. Italy alone accounted for 292 kmt of PET. According to market experts, and based on information from a variety of sources, more than 50% of Italy’s PET requirements came from outside the EU. Italy’s import quota according to various data amounts to between 55 to just under 70 per cent. Figures for other EU countries vary: in 2009, Spain imported 77 kmt, the UK 48 kmt and France 42 kmt from non-EU countries. Germany, which is one of the five EU countries with the highest requirement for PET, imported a mere 23 kmt from non-European states in 2009. Anti-dumping duties drastically reduce imports Alongside the plant closures in Europe, anti-dumping duties, levied by the EU Commission under certain conditions, affect the import of PET into the EU. Taking China and Australia as examples (see Fig. 4): in August 2004 an anti-dumping duty amounting to 184 Euro per tonne was levied on PET (bearing the Harmonized System Code 39076020) from both countries and this remained valid for five years in each case. In 2003 138 kmt PET were still being imported from China into what are now the 27 EU member states. Because of the imposition of an anti-dumping duty in 2004, imports totalled only 51kmt. After that, imports first soared to 104 kmt, before continu- ously falling back, until, in 2009, only 9 kmt PET from China was still getting into the EU. Another example is Aus- tralia. In 2009 the EU levied a €128 per tonne duty on exports from this country and the EU imported only 1.2kmt PET, of which 0.2kmt was sold to Ireland and 1 kmt to Italy. This compares with Fig. 4: Effects of anti-dumping duties on Imports from China into the EU (All figures: Source: Eurostat) anti-dumping duty