EuPC fears PET market distortion

Europe’s PET converters will continue to face cost pressures thanks to a controversial decision by the European Council of Ministers to extend anti-dumping duties and anti-subsidy measures on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for another five years.
EuPC, the Brussels-based body representing Europe’€™s plastics converters, claims elimination of these measures would have remedied long-standing market distortions caused by the artificially high level of raw material prices in the EU. It suggests that up to 80% of PET converters’€™ total costs are related to the purchase of raw materials.
According to EuPC, PET converters are already at a cost structure disadvantage in relation to raw material producers. The latter enjoy relatively low labour costs because their production operations are almost completely automatic. In contrast, converters’€™ operations are more labour intensive due to the sequence and type of materials handling, processing and distribution activities involved.