On Monday, the Foreign Trade Chamber of the Brazilian Ministry of Economy announced the extension of the definitive anti-dumping duty on suspension PVC imports under the HS code 3904.1010 from the United States and Mexico for up to five years. The tariff on the US and Mexican suspension polymer will slip from 16% ad valorem to 8.2% and from 18% ad valorem to 13.6% respectively. According to government officials, they will suspend the reduction if PVC exports from Mexico to Brazil rise to a level that could damage the Brazilian economy. The anti-dumping duty will be levied at the rate charged on the customs value of the goods. The Chamber’s decision also includes assessing PVC imports from Mexico that occurred during the period when the duty collection was suspended. Brazil has a quarterly quota limit for suspension-made PVC imports of 160,000 t. Imports of suspension-made PVC from countries with existing free trade agreements are not included in this quota, though.

Reminder: On July 20, government officials suspended its 12.6% tariff on emulsion PVC imports. The legislation will be effective from 25 July 2022 to 24 July 2023 but only for the first 12,000 t imported during the period. On 5 August, the Brazilian government reduced separate duties on all PVC imports from 11.2% to 4.4%, which will be valid until August 2023. All reductions were included to the List of Exceptions to the Mercosur Common External Tariff (LETEC).

Although demand is currently weak in Brazil amid forthcoming elections in October, this decision has the potential to increase shipments from the United States and Mexico to Brazil in the long run.

   The leading EPS maker Epsilyte plans to expand both production and recycling capabilities of expandable polystyrene (EPS) in the USA, according to the official press release. The company aims to debottleneck EPS production in Peru, Illinois, increasing capacity by around 25 million lb/year (11,340 tpy) by 2023, and to start an engineering study to expand the same facility, adding 220 million lb/year (99,790 tpy) by 2025. Epsilyte’s EPS plant in Peru, Illinois, is able to make 120,000 tpy now. The company also intends to expand post-consumer recycling capabilities at a unit in Piqua, Ohio, enlarging the facility’s ability to efficiently use post-consumer polystyrene as a feedstock to manufacture advanced materials.

   ‘We believe these investments are the most efficient way to increase North American EPS production to meet the needs of our customers,’ Glenn Wredenhagen, Vice President, Commercial and Supply Chain, informed in the press-release.

   The EPS market segment has been growing rapidly in recent years. EPS would be used only for packaging applications 10—15 years ago. Nowadays, the bulk of EPS sales are going into durable end users, primarily in the building and constructions sector.

India is going to conduct four transshipment trial runs in August before the full-scale use of Bangladesh's Chittagong and Mongla seaports, the local media has informed, citing the government officials. They say India is showing eagerness now to start the regular use of Chittagong and Mongla ports as soon as possible.

Another local media company has reported that a new container terminal is going to be added to the Chattogram port as the authorities are going to undertake a trial of the newly built Patenga Container Terminal (PCT) as early as this week. Together with this one, a new terminal will be added to the country's premier sea port after over 14 years and a half since the construction of the last one, New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) that was completed in December 2007.

However, the new terminal may become fully operational only after the appointment of a private operator and the installation of container handling equipment by the operator, which could take another year and a half.

Reminder: in October 2018, Bangladesh and India signed an agreement on the use of Chittagong and Mongla ports for the movement of goods to and from India mainly to provide a transshipment facility to India to transport goods to its northeastern states. The first trial run was carried out in July 2020.

Under the agreement, Indian traders shall pay a document-processing fee of BDT 30, a transshipment fee of BDT 20/t, a security charge of BDT 100/t, an escort charge of BDT 50/t, miscellaneous administrative charges of BDT 100/t, a container-scanning fee of BDT 254/container and an electronic seal lock fee as set out in the shipping rules.

Photo: New Mooring Terminal, port of Chittagong, sourced from Wikipedia