Americas top stories: weekly summary

ICIS Editorial

03-Feb-2025

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Here are the top stories from ICIS News from the week ended 31 January.

Colombia accepts US terms for migrants’ deportations, fends off 25% tariff threat
Colombia became over the weekend the first Latin American country to get a taste of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy mixed with unconventional diplomacy after the country refused landing to two flights with repatriated Colombian migrants.

INSIGHT: US tariffs of 25% on Mexico and Canada would cause massive hit to GDP – ICIS analysis
Proposed US tariffs of 25% on all imports from Mexico and Canada would have a massive negative impact to the GDP of the exporting countries and slow US GDP growth as well, according to the ICIS economist.

Brazil’s chemicals to slow in 2025 amid currency, fiscal deficit woes – Activas CEO
Brazil’s chemicals distribution sector posted healthy activity in 2024 as manufacturing finally gained traction, but conditions are set to worsen in 2025 amid high inflation, high borrowing costs, and a government too prone to spend, according to the CEO at Brazilian chemicals distributor Activas.

Dow to face margin pressure in Q1 with no help from macros – execs
Dow expects to face sales and margin pressures in Q1 2025 with no improvement in the macro outlook following a difficult Q4, senior executives said.

LyondellBasell confident on Q1 PE price gains on cracker downtime, lack of new capacity – execs
LyondellBasell expects to see price improvement in North America polyethylene (PE) in Q1 on industry cracker outages and lack of new local capacity starting up, along with higher demand through 2025.

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