Authors: Arathy Somasekhar and Georgina McCartney

Houston (Reuters) - U.S. international natural gas liquid exports hit record heights in April, even as the trade war between the United States and China caused the cargo of goods.

Recent trade developments threaten U.S. natural gas liquids (NGLs), such as ethane, butane and propane, for the manufacture of plastics and chemicals as well as heating and cooking. Since 2010, U.S. exports have had a new climax every year due to abundant cheap shale gas.

NGL is extracted mainly from raw natural gas during processing and is the latest energy product in the escalating trade war between the world's two largest economies.

According to the U.S. government's statistics department, nearly half of the U.S. ethane exports to China, with all Chinese imports coming from the U.S., with few other sources available. Sinopec companies use it as a raw material because it is cheaper than other naphtha, while U.S. oil and gas producers need China to buy natural gas liquids when domestic supply exceeds demand.

Data from ship tracking companies Kpler and Vortexa show that the U.S. exports about 2.9 million barrels of NGLS (BPD) per day.

But two sources told Reuters this week that earlier this week, two sources told REUTERS this week that exports to China were down 35% to 619,000 bpd. That's the 125% tariff on U.S. imports imposed from the U.S. earlier this month.

Other countries have increased purchases of US NGL in global reforms, making up for US purchases in China.

KPLER data shows that purchases in India have more than tripled, reaching a record high of 179,000 barrels per day.

Brazil has more than doubled its purchases to 113,000 bpd, the highest in five years, while Japan is the second largest buyer of natural gas liquids in the United States, raising the goods by 64% to nearly 400,000 bpd, the highest since February 2023.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that U.S. ethane production will grow by 3.6% to 2.9 million BPD this year, adding that much of this production growth will be exported to meet growing international demand.

"The market is already re-threading between the world's largest supplier of liquefied petroleum gasoline (propane and butane), the United States and the Middle East, and the largest importer is China and India," said Jim Teief, co-host executive executive business partner.