Indian duties on the rise
According to some recent data released by the consulting company Chemorbis, the Indian government raised customs duties on all polymer imports from 5% to 7.5% effective as of May 8, 2013. Buyers are expressing concerns about how the increase in duties will affect their margins, while traders and producers are generally anticipating better sales for local cargoes relative to imports for the short term.
Some processors in the PVC market, whose comments have been gathered by Chemorbis, claim to have so far been able to pass on their increased production costs to their customers, although they are not sure if they will be able to do so over the long term.
Meanwhile, PE buyers are voicing stronger complaints about the increase in customs duties and have reported less short run success in reflecting higher import costs onto their end product prices.
On the other hand, local raw materials producers seem to take advantage of this situation, since their sales are strong thanks to the depreciation of the Indian rupee and the recent increases in customs duties that encouraged more buyers to source locally.