The commerce ministry has terminated an anti-dumping investigation against mono ethylene glycol — a fibre intermediate — imported from Saudi Arabia following a request from Reliance Industries.
In December last year, the Directorate-General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), which is the ministry’s investigation arm, had initiated the probe into an alleged dumping of ethylene glycol originating in or imported from Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Singapore, following a complaint by RIL.
“In view of the request made by the domestic industry (RIL) ... the designated authority hereby terminates the investigation initiated on December 9, 2019 against the imports of MEG (or ethylene glycol) originating in or exported from Saudi Arabia,” the DGTR has said in a notification.
It further clarified that as the domestic company has requested for termination of the investigation only in respect of the imports from Saudi Arabia, the investigation against Kuwait, Oman, UAE and Singapore would continue.
The DGTR added that RIL in its letter dated February 21 has requested to terminate the investigation against Saudi Arabia. The rationale for RIL’s decision could not be ascertained. However, RIL has been looking to offload a 20 per cent stake in its oil-to-chemicals business to Saudi Aramco. The proposed transaction is crucial for RIL to meet its target of becoming a zero net debt firm by March 2021.
In the probe, the DGTR would determine the existence, degree and effect of alleged dumping, and consequent injury to the domestic industry. If established that dumping has caused material injury to the domestic industry, the directorate would recommend the amount of anti-dumping duty.
RIL is the largest player in the fibre intermediates segment in the country and produces mono, di & tri ethylene glycol across five locations in western India. MEG is primarily used in producing polyester yarns, polyester staple fibre, PET resin & PET film.
Shares of RIL on Tuesday zoomed almost 12 per cent to end at Rs 1206.40 at the BSE.
According to the RIL website, in 2017, the company had commissioned an MEG plant at Jamnagar with a capacity of 750000 tonnes, which increased its capacity to 1500000 tonnes of MEG.
