US/China trade war redrawing global LPG trading, outlook

The tariffs on imports from the US are expected to reduce China's LPG demand by 150,000 bpd in the second half of 2025 from the same period a year ago, while increasing naphtha consumption by 140,000 bpd, according to Energy Aspects.

However, these will not fully replace the 1.5 million tonnes monthly US supply, Celia Chen, lead LPG analyst at oil pricing firm Argus told an online seminar, expecting a drop of one million tonnes per month of supply for China.

For ethane, a China-based trade source said ethane-based crackers are maintaining their output as of now as their stocks can last until the second-half of May, but major importers have sought import duty waivers from Beijing given that the US is the sole supplier to China.

Satellite Chemical told its investors on April 8 it was seeking a waiver of ethane import tariffs, the company disclosed in a filing to the stock exchange.

(Reporting by Trixie Yap, Siyi Liu, Chen Aizhu in Singapore, Nidhi Verma and Mohi Narayan in New Delhi, Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo, Shariq Khan in New York; Writing by Florence Tan; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)