India revokes BIS quality controls across chemicals

India's central government has cancelled Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) quality controls across various petrochemicals, according a notice in the Gazette of India published on 12 November.

The list of petrochemicals include terephthalic acid, ethylene glycol (EG), 100pc polyester spun, grey and white yarn, polyester industrial yarn (IDY), polyester staple fibres (PSF), polyester continuous filament fully drawn yarn, polyester partially oriented yarn, polyethylene (PE) grades for moulding and extrusion, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polypropylene (PP) grades for moulding and extrusion, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) homopolymers, ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymers, polyurethanes and polycarbonates.

Return of Chinese ABS imports on the cards

The removal of BIS controls would likely have minimal short-term impact on the Indian ABS market, but could open the door to more frequent imports from China in the coming years, market sources said.

Northeast Asian-origin ABS historically makes up a large proportion of India's imports, with South Korea and Taiwan making up approximately 84pc of India's total ABS imports in 2020-24, according to Global Trade Tracker (GTT) data. The removal of BIS quality controls would allow Chinese ABS — which is typically more cost-competitive compared to other Asian exports — to enter the Indian market, but differing product specifications between Chinese and northeast Asian ABS could prove to be a short-term stumbling block because converters will likely need to go through a period of testing phases before they can import large volumes of Chinese ABS, market sources said.

Limited impact on PET chain

The removal of BIS quality controls has eliminated the primary administrative barrier for Chinese PTA, MEG, and PET fibre exports to India, but the impact of this development on the Chinese PET industry remains uncertain.

India's newly commissioned PET units are limited, and its existing capacity can hardly generate significant incremental demand for PTA and MEG raw materials. Meanwhile, Indian producer Gail's 1.25 mn t/yr PTA unit is likely to commence trial runs in early 2026. The project is expected to fill India's domestic PTA supply gap, further reducing import dependency.

The potential growth area now lies in India's polyester yarn (PET yarn) sector. India accounted for 48pc of China's total textile machinery exports in the first three quarters of 2025, according to customs data. This indicates that India's textile industry is undergoing capacity expansion, potentially filling the gap left by declining textile exports from Vietnam. But there has yet to be a surge in concentrated orders from India in the Chinese polyester market. The policy dividend and industrial demand transmission currently face a time lag, and the concrete effects have yet to be seen.

PVC participants remain on the sidelines

The removal of BIS quality controls on PVC is also spurring expectations of further supply and price pressure in the coming years, but such effects may not come to pass because India's import dependency is set to ease on the back of the start up of new Indian PVC capacities over the same period.

There are 40 PVC plants outside of India that received BIS certification as of today, but Chinese suppliers, who contributed around 40pc of total PVC imports into India in 2024 and around 49pc in January-August 2025, had yet to receive BIS certification. The short-term impact from BIS cancellations is likely to remain minimal, given the ongoing presence of more competitive Chinese PVC cargoes in India and the already-present price disparity between China and other PVC exporters, but market participants remain wary of ongoing anti-dumping investigations on a number of countries which remain in play in India.

BIS quality controls on ethylene dichloride (EDC) and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) were not rescinded as part of the notice, with imports for both remaining, and likely to remain, key feedstock components for the production of PVC in India.

Chinese PP, HDPE export growth remains likely

The removal of BIS quality controls on PP is likely to encourage additional Chinese exports into India in the long-term, while simultaneously boosting high-density PE (HDPE) export growth from China. Some exceptions to BIS quality controls were already communicated PE grades, including some low-density PE (LDPE) grades, linear low-density PE (LLDPE) grades and certain specialty HDPE grades. Among them, LLDPE butene exemptions were withdrawn in June.

Indian PP capacity grew at a rate of 2.6pc over the past five years, falling behind the country's GDP growth rate. As a result, Indian PP imports did not fall sharply, holding steady at around 1.5mn t/yr. The UAE, Singapore and Saudi Arabia remain the top three suppliers. BIS quality controls on PP were postponed four times since 2024, leading to an increase in Chinese PP imports from 62,000t in 2023 to around 160,000t so far in 2025. Chinese PP sellers, who stood as the fourth-largest PP supplier into India, had yet to receive BIS approval.

The removal of BIS quality controls could encourage further Chinese imports into India in the long term, but some market participants remain cautious over upcoming Indian PP capacities, which are expected to increase the country's supply by 5mn t/yr in the coming five years and support the potential for India to become self-sufficient.

On HDPE, Indian imports dropped from 2mn t in 2023 to 1.2mn t in 2024, with only 460,000t in the first half of 2025. Chinese PE sellers were also yet to receive BIS approval. Chinese HDPE exports to India dropped from 58,000t in 2023 to 13,000t in 2024, but the recent removal of BIS quality controls is likely to stimulate further HDPE shipments to India.