(plasticsinfomart) -- In Egypt, the former Industry and Foreign Trade Minister Mahmoud Essa had approved a decision imposing 15% or USD267/ton in protection fees, whichever was higher based on the total import sum, on homo-PP imports effective as of June 5 until December 22, 2012, for 200 days, upon the local PP producer EPPC’s request.
In return for imposing the duties, an agreement was signed between EPPC and the government as of June 27. According to the agreement, the local producer was required to provide all of the market’s homo-PP needs and they would have to keep their prices in line with monthly global price announcements. The agreement also required a minimum monthly order amount of 50 tons from local buyers purchasing from EPPC.
However, market players have since been complaining that the producer has not been able to meet the needs of the market apart from raffia grade and that they failed to provide film grade. A film and injection products maker had previously complained, “EPPC cannot make all of the grades needed in the market. The market remains short of material despite the producer’s promises.” Regarding PP injection, some converters were considering substituting HDPE injection for homo-PP injection in their manufacturing process since the new duties pushed PP injection to uncompetitive levels.
MRC