The Chinese government is rumored to lift import tariff of mixed aromatics to hold back imports used as gasoline blendstock.
There were two possible schemes: 1, raising import tariff rate of mixed aromatics with aromatics content at 65-80% from the current 3% to 5-6% while keeping that with aromatics content above 80% unchanged at 3%; 2, elevating import tariff rates of all specifications of mixed/aromatics to 7% uniformly, according to market sources.
If the rates were fixed at 5-7%, blending costs of gasoline would rise by just Yuan 110-250/mt, which was feasible to some extent, the sources said.
The government will not likely levy consumption tax on mixed aromatics imports, because it would lead to surges in purchasing costs of the other aromatics products, the sources reckoned. In China, mixed aromatics are categorized as "other aromatics compounds" by the customs, which comprise of mixed xylene, trimethyl-benzene and tetramethylbenzene, etc. besides mixed aromatics.
If imposing Yuan 1/liter of consumption tax on gasoline, costs of blended gasoline would jump Yuan 1,388/mt.
It is hard to distinguish the usage of imported mixed aromatics, the sources also said.
Customs sources said they have not received any official notifications so far.
China's imports of "other aromatics compounds" added up to 1.99-mil mt in the first ten months of 2010, significantly up 88.45% from 1.05-mil mt a year earlier, showed data from the General Administration of Customs. About 50% of the imports were mixed aromatics, of which 70% was used to blend gasoline and 30% for extraction, C1's data indicated. South China imported around 700,000mt of mixed aromatics in the period.
There were two possible schemes: 1, raising import tariff rate of mixed aromatics with aromatics content at 65-80% from the current 3% to 5-6% while keeping that with aromatics content above 80% unchanged at 3%; 2, elevating import tariff rates of all specifications of mixed/aromatics to 7% uniformly, according to market sources.
If the rates were fixed at 5-7%, blending costs of gasoline would rise by just Yuan 110-250/mt, which was feasible to some extent, the sources said.
The government will not likely levy consumption tax on mixed aromatics imports, because it would lead to surges in purchasing costs of the other aromatics products, the sources reckoned. In China, mixed aromatics are categorized as "other aromatics compounds" by the customs, which comprise of mixed xylene, trimethyl-benzene and tetramethylbenzene, etc. besides mixed aromatics.
If imposing Yuan 1/liter of consumption tax on gasoline, costs of blended gasoline would jump Yuan 1,388/mt.
It is hard to distinguish the usage of imported mixed aromatics, the sources also said.
Customs sources said they have not received any official notifications so far.
China's imports of "other aromatics compounds" added up to 1.99-mil mt in the first ten months of 2010, significantly up 88.45% from 1.05-mil mt a year earlier, showed data from the General Administration of Customs. About 50% of the imports were mixed aromatics, of which 70% was used to blend gasoline and 30% for extraction, C1's data indicated. South China imported around 700,000mt of mixed aromatics in the period.
