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The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) last week disseminated a notification to all PE and EVA buyers to comply with the Indian Standards requirements by the deadline of 15 October 2021, which disrupted trading activities.

Sources said that Customers scrambled to push overseas suppliers to move up the shipping schedules for previously purchased cargoes to make sure that their parcels shall not arrive after the given deadline, while many other refused to confirm new orders for October arrivals.

In April, the Indian government announced the implementation of the Quality Control Order on various plastic raw materials and chemicals, which include PE and EVA. Suppliers would have to submit an application for use of the Standard Mark on the products, which could take up to six months for foreign producers to obtain the BIS license. Without the Standard Mark, the cargoes will not be allowed to pass the Customs.

Buyers have submitted a request for an extension of the grace period before the implementation of the new quality control citing the movement restrictions during the outbreak that hurdle the application process. The government has agreed to postpone the implementation date to 3rd February 2022 for rubber and other chemical products, and buyers in the PE market are expecting a similar time frame, though no official announcement from the authority yet at the time of this report.

Several international producers informed CommoPlast that their applications are still under processing and that the raw material testing process must be done by government-appointed organizations. “There is no other choice. We have to wait because of the high volume of application,” a Saudi Arabia maker added.

International sellers are being mindful that the Indian government might soon expand the list of the products that must comply with the new Quality Control Order, including PP and PVC.  

**Image adapted from MPR India Certification

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