The Indian government has started an anti-dumping investigation into imports of mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, UAE and Singapore.
The probe follows a petition from private-sector Indian producer Reliance Industries (RIL), with support from India Glycols. The investigation will focus on the January-September 2019 period but the assessment of the extent of damage dealt to the domestic industry will cover 2016-19, according to the official notice of the probe.
MEG is a major feedstock for the polyester industry and is used to produce PET fibres, PET films and resins. India is the world's second-largest polyester producer after China with around 10mn t/yr of capacity. The country produced around 7mn t of polyester products in 2018.
RIL is India's largest MEG producer, owning seven production lines with total nameplate capacity of 1.4mn t/yr. RIL started a new 700,000 t/yr MEG unit last year, sending India's imports down by about 45pc to 657,000t in 2018 from 1.2mn t a year earlier. But imports rebounded to 566,000t in the first nine months of 2019.
