PODCAST: Trade war could help trigger global recession

BARCELONA (ICIS)–The trade war is already hurting consumer and business sentiment and may help cause a global recession as demand collapses amid rampant chemicals overcapacity.

• US retailers fear empty shelves, fueling inflation
• Uncertainty, chaos is hurting business, dampening consumer sentiment
• China chemicals demand growth could be negative in 2025
• China may exempt $46 billion of US goods from tariffs including ethane, polyethylene (PE), styrene polymers
• Huge drop in May bookings for China imports through US ports
• Power back to normal in Spain after nationwide outage on 28 April, chemical plants restarting
• System should be resilient to adapt to swings in solar and wind production

In this Think Tank podcast, Will Beacham interviews John Richardson from the ICIS market development team, Paul Hodges, chairman of New Normal Consulting and ICIS gas and cross-commodity expert Aura Sabadus.

Editor’s note: This podcast is an opinion piece. The views expressed are those of the presenter and interviewees, and do not necessarily represent those of ICIS.

ICIS is organising regular updates to help the industry understand current market trends. Register here .

Read the latest issue of ICIS Chemical Business.

Read Paul Hodges and John Richardson’s ICIS blogs.