Northeast Asian PET producers on Wednesday expressed concern about rising competition from Southeast Asian producers in the European market, after the EU Council removed antidumping duties on PET imports from five Asian nations.

On Tuesday, the council said it will remove a range of antidumping duties on PET imports from India, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, Platts reported.

In response to the removal of duties, a South Korean PET producer said: "European buyers would likely prefer to buy Southeast Asian-origin cargoes rather than Northeast Asian because of shorter voyage time and lower freight costs. We will likely face tough competition."

According to Platts' data, freight between Northeast Asia and Europe is $10-20/mt higher than between Southeast Asia and Europe. In addition, the voyage is about seven days longer from South Korea than Southeast Asia to Europe.

For European PET producers, the future is looking grim, market sources said. Apart from new competition from Asia, they are also inundated by Omani supplies after Octal Petrochemicals brought on stream its new 1 million mt/year PET plant at Salalah last year.

According to the EU Council, India is the largest PET exporter to Europe, followed by Oman and South Korea.

Separately, based on a parallel review, the council will impose antidumping duties on certain PET imports from India. The EU will impose a countervailing duty on imports of PET from India with a viscosity number of 78 ml/g or higher, according to ISO Standard 1628-5.