Focus on: United States’ Chemical Trade in the First Half of 2015

United States’ exports of several chemicals surged in the first half of 2015:  shipments of acetone, benzene, ethylene glycol, methanol, phenol, propylene and VAM were up 16% to 142% from the same period in 2014.

As of June 2015, US exported: 243,000 tons of acetone, up 16%; 148,000 tons of benzene, up 43%;  342,000 tons of ethylene glycol, up 69%; 179,000 tons of methanol, up 98%; 234,000 tons of phenol, up 54%; 88,000 tons of propylene, up 142%; and, 284,000 tons of VAM, up 25%. Exports of cyclohexane, ethylene, cumene and styrene also posted significant gains.

US continued to import large volumes of some of these chemicals, but with mixed trends. Leading imports through June were: benzene, 1.1 million tons June YTD, up 16%; ethylene glycol, 484,000 tons, up 6%; methanol, 2.2 million tons, down 9%.

US exports of the following important chemicals were down in the first half of the year: EDC, 550,000 tons, down 14%; para-xylene, 594,000 tons, down 19%; and VCM, 524,000 tons, down 8%.

From International Trader Publications: World Trade Reports on each product