Issue 8, 2018 - Global Chemicals Quick Facts

International investment banks raised their oil price forecasts for the sixth consecutive month

In March, some international investment banks raised their oil price forecasts
for the sixth consecutive month.
According to its forecast, with the decline in crude oil inventories and the rise of global geopolitical risks, the supply and demand conditions of the crude oil market will be more balanced
in the coming months.
At the end of March, a Wall Street Journal survey of 15 investment banks showed its average forecast for global benchmark Brent crude oil prices this year at $63 per barrel and the average forecast for the price of the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was close to $59 per barrel, both about $
1 higher than in February.
The investment banks also expect Brent prices to fall to around $61 a barrel next year and rise back to near $62 a barrel by 2020
.

The U.
S.
-China trade confrontation increases risks to the U.
S.
plastics industry

In response to the Trump administration's decision to impose 25 percent tariffs on about $50 billion worth of Chinese imports, China plans to impose 25 percent import tariffs
on 106 U.
S.
products.
U.
S.
products on the list include low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polyolefin elastomers and polyolefin plastics, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resins, polyamide 66 resins, aromatic and semi-aromatic polyamides and their copolymers, epoxy resins
.
According to the American Chemistry Council (ACC), China is one of the most important trading partners of the U.
S.
chemical industry, accounting for 11 percent of U.
S.
plastic resin products imported into the United States in 2017, worth $3.
2 billion
.
China's list of planned tariffs on U.
S.
exports would threaten the U.
S.
plastics and chemical industries
.