{"id":379,"date":"2026-05-27T11:56:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T03:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/139.199.182.234\/?p=379"},"modified":"2026-05-28T18:06:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T10:06:40","slug":"china-us-chemicals-import-export-comparison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dghtj.com\/us\/china-us-chemicals-import-export-comparison\/","title":{"rendered":"Comparison of Chemical Imports and Exports between China and the United States"},"content":{"rendered":"

I. China exports 436 types of chemicals to the United States, with 84 types accounting for over 10% of total exports to the US.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

According to customs statistics, in 2024 China exported over 436 types of chemicals to the United States, of which about 84 types accounted for more than 10% of total exports to the US, making them relatively significant products, representing about 19% of total export volume.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From the export share statistics, diethyl phosphite exported 300 tons in 2024, all of which went to the US market, accounting for 100% of total exports. Diethyl phosphite is an important organophosphorus compound, mainly used as a key raw material for the fungicide \u201cfuji-one\u201d to control rice blast and sheath blight in rice, and is the first organic phosphorus fungicide produced on a large scale globally. In the pharmaceutical field, it is used to synthesize antibiotics like fosfomycin and antiepileptic drugs, and in industry, it serves as a flame retardant for plastics and rubber.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The US, the world's largest agricultural exporter, has growing demand for efficient pesticides. Diethyl phosphite, as a core raw material for fungicides like fuji-one, is a relatively important raw material product in US agricultural pest control. According to Pingtouge, China has abundant phosphate rock resources and lower ethanol prices, making the production cost of diethyl phosphite about 20%-30% lower than in the US.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In 2024, China exported a total of 100 tons of acetaldehyde, of which 91% went to the US, with a relatively small overall export scale, mainly due to arbitrage opportunities. In 2024, phenylacetic acid exports to the US accounted for 69% of total exports, also one of the largest export share products, with an export volume of about 600 tons. Phenylacetic acid's dependence on the US market is largely because the US is the world's largest consumer of penicillin, and phenylacetic acid, as a core raw material for penicillin, is an important raw material in the US pharmaceutical supply chain.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Among large-scale products exported to the US, representative ones include 1,1-dichloroethylene, epoxidized soybean oil, PVC gloves, benzyl chloride, hexamethylenetetramine, fuel cells, polymeric MDI, succinic acid, vinylene carbonate, phosphates, and hydroiodic acid. These products each have export volumes exceeding 20,000 tons to the US and account for over 20% of total exports, making them large-scale products relatively dependent on the US market. The current tariff war may have a certain impact on such products.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Figure 1 Ranking of China's chemical exports to the US as a share of total exports in 2024<\/p>\n

\"\u56fe\u72471.png\"<\/p>\n

II. China imports 448 types of chemicals from the United States, with 114 types accounting for over 10% of total imports from the US.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

According to customs statistics, in 2024 China imported over 448 types of chemicals from the United States, of which 114 types accounted for more than 10% of total imports, a relatively significant share.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The largest proportions are 2-butene, acetaldehyde, o-phenylenediamine, calcium hydrogen phosphate, and (mixed coding of ethane, n-hexane, n-heptane, isohexane), all of which have an import proportion of 100%, meaning they were completely reliant on the US market for imports in 2024. However, a comparison shows that the import volumes of these products from the US are all small, with calcium hydrogen phosphate at only 1,440 tons and o-phenylenediamine at only 373 tons, having a negligible impact on the Chinese market.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Additionally, propionic acid, lithium metal, hexamethylenetetramine, terephthalates, ethyl vanillin, and anhydrous sodium tetraborate accounted for over 90% of imports from the US in 2024, making the US a key supplier for China. Among them, hexamethylenetetramine has the largest import scale, reaching about 39,000 tons, while the other products have import volumes all less than 1,000 tons and are not bulk commodities. The tariff war has essentially no impact on these types of goods.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In 2024, China imported approximately 760,000 tons of soda ash from the US, accounting for about 79% of total imports that year. It is the commodity with the highest import scale and proportion. Although China is the world's largest soda ash producer, it still imports soda ash from the US due to the combined effects of market supply and demand structure, cost differences, trade policies, and industrial upgrade needs. Most of the soda ash imported by China from the US is high-purity products with a purity of \u226599.9% and impurity content \u22640.01%, which have long relied on imports.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Soda ash produced by the US natural soda ash method, due to its low impurity content and high whiteness, is irreplaceable in applications such as photovoltaic glass coating and lithium battery electrolytes. In 2024, over 70% of the soda ash China imported from the US was used for photovoltaic glass production.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Moreover, in 2024, the China-US trade environment was relatively stable. China imposed a 5% import tariff and a 13% value-added tax on soda ash, while US soda ash enjoyed partial tariff reductions under the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement, resulting in a lower comprehensive tax rate compared to other source countries like Turkey and the UAE. Therefore, the lower tariff on imports from the US in 2024 was one of the main reasons for the large-scale import of soda ash from the US.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another product is propane. In 2024, China imported over 17 million tons of propane from the US, accounting for more than 59% of total imports. This tariff will impact Chinese companies importing propane from the US, and they will need to rely more on China's exemption policies for support.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In 2024, China imported over 100,000 tons of PVC from the US, accounting for more than 44% of total imports, making it another large-scale and high-proportion import commodity. According to research by Pingtouge, US ethylene-based PVC has a purity of \u226599.9% and impurity content \u22640.01%, meeting FDA food contact and medical grade standards. For example, US Olin's PVC paste resin is used to manufacture precision medical equipment such as infusion bags and dialyzers. Additionally, US PVC dominates in areas such as lithium battery separator coatings and semiconductor packaging materials. US Westlake's electronic-grade PVC, certified by UL, is used for 5G base station cable insulation. Such products have small production volumes in China with insufficient supply, which is another main reason China imports PVC from the US.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Figure 2 Ranking of the proportion of chemicals imported by China from the US in total imports in 2024<\/p>\n

\"\u56fe\u72472.png\"<\/p>\n

Pingtouge believes that in the international trade of chemicals between China and the US, some products, due to their characteristics, have a certain dependence on the US market, although alternatives are being actively sought. As for goods exported by China to the US, especially those with large export volumes and high proportions, such as epoxidized soybean oil, PVC gloves, succinic acid, and phosphate products, the tariff war may bring certain impacts, and we need to seek other alternative consumer markets.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Disclaimer: Some of the images and materials in this article come from the internet, and the copyright belongs to the original authors. If there are any copyright issues related to the works, please contact us for removal. Thank you!<\/p>\n

This article is reposted from the WeChat public account: Chemical Flathead Brother, for sharing purposes only. If there is any infringement, please contact to delete!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u4e00\u3001\u4e2d\u56fd\u5411\u7f8e\u56fd\u51fa\u53e3\u7684\u5316\u5de5\u54c1\u6570\u91cf\u8fbe\u5230436\u79cd\uff0c\u670984\u79cd\u5316\u5de5\u54c1\u51fa\u53e3\u7f8e\u56fd\u5360\u6bd4\u8d85\u8fc710%   \u5e73\u5934\u54e5\u6839\u636e\u6d77\u5173 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industrial-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dghtj.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dghtj.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dghtj.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dghtj.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dghtj.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dghtj.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380,"href":"https:\/\/dghtj.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions\/380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dghtj.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dghtj.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dghtj.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dghtj.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}