Episode 1335: Think Tank: Trade War could help trigger global recession

The impending 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, fuelling 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