Reconsideration of ADD on Brazil's PE imports from the US puts market on hold

Market participants in Brazil's polyethylene import segment once again fear that the government may apply a higher antidumping duty on US and Canadian products, according to sources, after a request to reconsider the ADD resolution was included on the agenda of Brazil's foreign trade committee meeting on June 23.

Later that day, the government's website published the meeting's deliberations, noting that requests to reconsider the ADD resolution will be kept on the agenda for future meetings and, therefore, were not discussed during the encounter.

Market talk the previous week indicated that a new analysis on the antidumping duty was going to take place, with some Brazil-based traders already reporting weakened demand for US-origin PE.

While requests for reanalysis have not been publicly disclosed, sources believe they come from domestic resin and chemicals producer Braskem and echo what was said during Braskem's Q4 earnings call.

On March 27, the company's CEO said during Braskem's fourth-quarter earnings call that it would appeal the ADD decision, considered "pitiful", a day after the Chamber of Foreign Trade released the publication that the definitive duty, with validity of up to five years, was set at $199.04/mt, the same value previously implemented for the preliminary duty on Aug. 29, 2025.

Previously, Brazil's Department of Foreign Trade published a technical review of the country's dumping investigation on polyethylene imports from the US and Canada on Feb. 2, calculating dumping margins for US polyethylene imports at $734.32/mt, or 79.3%.

Now, market participants believe that an ADD at $700/mt levels is once again on the table.

"We are now back to the starting point," said a Brazil-based trader. "We were chill with the decision of the $199/mt duty and resumed buying from the US, now everyone's scared again."

According to a second Brazilian trader, even with the discussion being postponed for at least a month, PE imports from the US to Brazil are not worth the risk.

"It still doesn't compensate for selling US cargoes here," said the source. "It's better to redirect them somewhere else."

In the same decree, Brazil implemented a $238.49/mt ADD on Canadian imports, the third main PE supplier to Brazil at the time. The dumping margin calculated for Canadian products ranged from $232-$264.99/mt, depending on the producer. Following the ADD, Canadian product was no longer competitive in Brazil.

Import volumes have not decreased, despite ADD

The US was once the main PE supplier to Brazil, with an average of 70% of market share throughout 2025, according to import data from Brazil's Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services.

In April 2026, US PE imports into Brazil reached a record low of 12%, and showed a slight improvement in May to 17%.

Even amid antidumping discussions and implementation, imports in the January-May period increased by 3% when compared with the same period the previous year.

During this period, the volume purchased from the US fell by 55%, while purchases from Argentina increased by 62%. The volume from Saudi Arabia, in turn, more than quintupled.

"Imports are not decreasing, they are just changing their origins," added a third trader.