Australia’s Minister for Industry, Science, and Technology Christian Porter recently signed off on a decision by the country’s Antidumping Commission that removed duties on ammonium nitrate from the Russian Federation.
The Commission said it was not satisfied that the expiration of the measures, which have been in place since 2001, would likely lead to any exports of Russian ammonium nitrate being exported to Australia at dumped prices. However, it did add that lower-priced AN would likely affect spot sales, which it said account for only 5 percent of the Australian AN market. It said it also accepted that low-priced imports would have some price effect on the contract examples provided by producer Orica Australia.
The Commission recommended the dumping duties expire May 24, 2021.
At least one domestic player, Wesfarmers, Perth, which is eyeing a future AN production expansion, is appealing the Commission’s decision, according to a report in the Financial Review, which said domestic producers argued that Russian AN continues to benefit from low-cost natural gas subsidized by the Russian government, while Australian producers have been stressed by high domestic natural gas prices.
The Financial Review noted that mining giant Glencore pushed for the removal of the sanctions, arguing that domestic producers had to import Russian product to supplement their own production and that the domestic industry enjoys historic profit margins.