India mulls extending anti-dumping duties against EU, Korea and Thai SBR

Delhi – The Indian government has initiated a 'sunset review' of anti-dumping duties against styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) imported from Europe, South Korea and Thailand.

The duties were initially imposed in 2017 and covered on SBR 1500 and SBR 1700 series, according to India’s directorate general of trade remedies (DGTR).

The authority is now investigating the extension of the duties following a petition by Reliance Industries Ltd, which claimed that the dumping of subject goods continued from the EU and Korea “even after imposition of antidumping duty.”

The petition, said DGTR, claimed that there was a likelihood of recurrence of injury to the domestic industry once the duties are removed.

In 2017, highest duties were imposed on European imports, including ESBR supplied by Synthos Kralupy AS, Czech Republic and Synthos Dwory 7 Sp. Z. Oo, Poland which faced a tariff of $207.49 per tonne.

Other EU suppliers faced a duty of $266/tonne.

Among the European companies that were also investigated at the time were Versalis SpA, Lanxess AG (now Arlanxeo), Styron LLC and Trinseo Pvt. Ltd (now owned by Synthos).

South Korean companies, for which India is the second SBR export market, also faced anti-dumping duties, albeit at lower rates.

The government imposed a rate of $33.95/tonne in duties for synthetic rubber imported from Kumho Petrochemical, while LG Chem faced a tariff of $28.68/tonne.

For other Korean companies, the Indian authority levied an anti-dumping duty of $64/tonne.

Thai SBR suppliers faced tariffs of $243.6 per tonne.