London — The share of the European Union’s imports from the US has fallen to 37% in May, from an average of 64% during January-April, according to the latest data from Eurostat.
The proportion of imports from the US declined in May as US prices were the highest globally for a large part of March, which meant that the EU’s import arbitrage from the US was closed.
The arbitrage opened sporadically in April, which led to small windows to work the trade route.
However, no major turnarounds were planned in May in Europe, which disincentivized traders from importing large volumes from the US.
In May, imports from Russia and Saudi Arabia were recorded at 10,856 mt and 6,191 mt, which accounted for 40% and 23% of the EU’s total imports.
Traders had talked of a surge in imports from the US as a ripple effect from the antidumping duties placed on Chinese styrene imports from the US, Taiwan and South Korea. However, this was not apparent in May.
In January-May as a whole, imports from the US grew 140% on the year. This was mainly due to low imports from the US in Q1 2017 due to extreme tightness in the US market as a result of planned and unplanned production works, rather than the effects from the duties.
In terms of exports, volumes fell on a year-on-year basis. In Q1 2017, major production issues in the US meant that EU producers had to step in to supply extra volumes to countries such as Brazil, which typically source the majority of their supplies from the US.
–Yuriko Kato, [email protected]
–Edited by Maurice Geller, [email protected]
Source: S&P Global Platts
