Anti-dumping duties on Indonesian fatty acids

On 19 January, the European Commission (EC) imposed anti-dumping duties on fatty acid imported from Indonesia, ranging from 15.2% to 46.4%.

“This follows an investigation which showed that the EU industry was being harmed by dumped imports because it could not compete on price, resulting in a market share loss,” the EC said. “The duties will help to ensure fair competition between fatty acid imported from Indonesia

In Brief

THAILAND: Leading Asian petrochemicals firm SCGC Chemicals announced plans to jointly develop a plantbased plastics plant with Brazilian petrochemical company Braskem, the Bangkok Post reported on 2 February.

The facility would start bio-ethylene production in 2025 to be used in the manufacture of bio-based polyethylene (PE), a type of plastic used to make a range of products including packaging materials and bottles.

Once operational, the factory in the Map Ta Phut area of Rayong would have a production capacity of 200,000 tonnes/year, SCGC president Tanawong Areeratchakul was quoted as saying.

As bio-based PE plastic was produced from plants, including sugarcane and cassava, the factory would help farmers earn extra revenue, Tanawong said.

and locally-produced fatty acid.”

The duties were imposed following a complaint lodged on 18 October 2021 by the Coalition against Unfair Trade in Fatty Acid. On 30 November that year, the EC launched an anti-dumping investigation on Indonesian fatty acid imports, followed by an anti-subsidy probe on 13 May.

Indonesia’s Musim Mas group and Asian agribusiness Wilmar International had said that imports from Indonesia were overstat- ed as they included fatty acid imported for biodiesel production and other fatty acids not used in food, cosmetics and personal applications, such as palmitic acids.

However, the EC said fatty acid produced as a by-product of biodiesel production was not included in the investigation and its analysis indicated a decrease in EU production and capacity utilisation and injury to the EU industry from the dumping of fatty acids from Indonesia.