Kinder Morgan’s co-founder and billionaire Rich Kinder stated that there is no need for the market to worry about China’s reduced demand for American natural gas due to tariff cuts.
He believes that purchases from other countries besides China are enough to fill the gap left by Chinese buyers.
In recent weeks, the sentiment in the US liquefied natural gas (LNG) export market has been affected by Beijing’s retaliatory response to President Trump’s tariffs.
The 80-year-old Kinder expressed on Wednesday evening during the quarterly earnings conference call that concerns about the US liquefied natural gas losing the Chinese market are unfounded.
“We believe that any losses in the Chinese market will be offset – as the European Union and countries in Asia will increase imports of US liquefied natural gas,” Kinder said. “This not only helps reduce trade imbalances but also puts them in a more advantageous position in US tariff negotiations.”
He also added that their company has long-term supply agreements with US liquefied natural gas export facilities, meaning that the company will benefit regardless of the situation.
On February 1st, President Trump signed an executive order imposing a 10% tariff on all goods imported from China, due to the inadequate regulation by the Chinese government regarding the smuggling of fentanyl, an opioid substance, into the US.
Subsequently, China announced a series of retaliatory measures, including imposing 10%-15% tariffs on US imports such as coal, liquefied natural gas, crude oil, agricultural machinery, high-displacement vehicles, and pick-up trucks, as well as implementing export controls on rare earth elements like tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum, and indium. China also initiated an antitrust investigation against Google and added two companies to an unreliable entity list.
After several rounds of escalating tariffs from both sides, currently, the US imposes 145% tariffs on most Chinese goods, while China levies 125% tariffs on American products.
(This article is partially based on a report from Bloomberg)