Chinese retaliatory tariffs on imports of polyethylene from the US resulted in a 24% drop in US shipments to China for the January – May 2025 period, to 822,000 tons. That decline was somewhat offset by higher volumes to other markets, resulting in a 4% increase in the US total, to 6.5 million tons YTD.

Easing of trade tensions and a reduction in tariffs for an initial 90 day period was announced by the White House on May 12 (Joint Statement on US China Economic and Trade Meeting in Geneva) and is expected to result in increased polyethylene trade in coming months.

From International Trader Publication’s World Trade Analyses on all grades of polyethylene, continuously updated analyses based on statistics from all available countries.