US trade gap rises to US$44b as virus slams commerce
America’s trade deficit rose in March as the coronavirus outbreak battered America’s trade with the world.
The US Commerce Department reported Tuesday that the gap between what the United States sells and what it buys abroad widened 11.6 per cent in March to US$44.4 billion, from US$39.8 billion in February. US exports fell 9.6 per cent to US$187.7 billion on plunging orders for cars, auto parts and industrial machines. Imports fell 6.2 per cent to US$232.2 billion.
Total trade – exports plus imports – came in at US$419.9 billion in March, down 7.8 per cent from February and 11.4 per cent from March 2019.
The politically sensitive deficit in the trade of goods with China fell 21.3 per cent to US$15.5 billion in March as exports rose slightly and imports plummeted.
and came against the background of rapidly rising oil prices beyond US$140 a barrel at certain stages. Some of the delays stemmed from identifying a sustainable market for natural gas supplies.
American company New Fortress Energy, NFE, eventually stepped into that breach and contracted with JPS in 2016 to start supplying natural gas to the utility.
Both JPS’s 120MW Bogue plant in Montego Bay and its 190MW plant in Old Harbour, St Catherine, now operate on LNG. The conversion of other plants are in the works.
Earlier this year, New Fortress commissioned its own LNG-fired power plant in Clarendon to supply alumina refinery Jamalco with electricity. The excess power is sold to the JPS grid.
“Any reduction in the cost of oil and gas is considered beneficial for the country, especially during this time, given that it represents a significant portion of the overall cost of electricity to customers,” said JPS. “It should also be noted that the newer plants are primarily designed to operate using LNG, and even though they facilitate the use of oil when necessary, this is on a temporary basis and would potentially be more costly in relation to maintenance and capital costs in the long run,” the power company said.
JPS added that it takes a variety of factors into consideration when determining how best to deploy the generation fleet, including the efficiency of the respective plants, the safety and effectiveness of the units, the overall cost of production, and its legal and contractual obligations.
The utility – which is co-parented by Marubeni Corporation of Japan and Korea East-West Power of South Korea, with the Government of Jamaica as minority partner – is the sole distributor of electricity, serving about 600,000 customers.
The grid encompasses 940MW of power, of which JPS owns 400MW. The remainder is supplied under contract by independent producers, including JPS affiliate South Jamaica Power Company.