Initially, the European Commission had imposed punitive duties on imports of monoethylene glycol (MEG) from the US and Saudi Arabia for six months (see Plasteurope.com of 15.06.2021). Now, with the issuance of an implementing regulation, the anti-dumping duties on the PET precursor have become permanent as of 12 November 2021.

Depending on the country of origin and the company, the size of these duties will range from 3% (for Lotte Chemical Louisiana) or 7.7% (for all Saudi Arabian producers, including Sabic) to 46.7% (for Dow affiliate MEGlobal Americas). While around 60% is being slapped on MEG products of all other US companies, the duty is 10.3% for other cooperating US companies (Indorama Ventures, Equistar Chemicals, Sasol Chemicals).

According to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), worldwide MEG production is nearly 38m t/y, more than three quarters of which is based in Asia. Saudi Arabia, with 4.4m t/y, lies in third place, behind the US with 5.2m t/y. The front-runner in MEG production is China, with more than 14m t/y.