South Korea’s petrochemical sector has become the latest target of anti-dumping investigations by European and American authorities.

The European Commission said last Wednesday that it received a complaint and initiated an anti-dumping probe on imported purified terephthalic acid (PTA) from Korea.

PTA is a primary raw material that is mostly used in polyester production including polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and polyester fibers and films.

The European investigation comes after the American investigation in July against emulsion styrene-butadiene rubber (ESBR) made in Korea, Brazil, Poland and Mexico.

U.S. chemical makers led by Lion Elastomers and East West Copolymers filed anti-dumping petitions with the U.S. International Trade Commission (US ITC) and the Department of Commerce (DOC), demanding anti-dumping penalties of 22.4 to 44.2 percent against imports from Korea. Earlier in June, the U.S. chemical industry also requested the U.S. authorities to launch an anti-dumping probe into imports of dioctyl terephthalate from Korea.

Series of anti-dumping measures against the Korean exports underscores a rising export volume of Korean petrochemical products to the regions. Top five products exported to the European Union (EU) are: PTA, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), PET, polypropylene (PP) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS).

Korea’s PTA exports to the EU in the first half grew 17 percent on year to 440,000 metric tons. PTA exporters are expected to swing to the black thanks to rising demand. LDPE exports to the EU totaled 1.1 metric tons in the first six months of this year, up 130 percent from a year ago. Shipment of PET (31 percent), PP (88 percent) and ABS (28 percent) also increased.

A surge in outbound shipment of these chemicals was seen since the fourth quarter of last year. An industry official said recent anti-dumping proceeding in the EU is baffling, adding that it is attributable to European chemical producers who have taken issue with increasing Korean exports.

He was worried that the protectionist measures would expand to other petrochemical products, which would deal a blow to the industry’s exports.

By Jung Wook

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