Chemicals factory boss Erman Tan recalls how the impact of tit-for-tat tariffs between the United States and China in May came swiftly and suddenly for manufacturers like himself.
"Customers just stopped buying. It was two weeks past when they were supposed to place orders with us, but they didn't," says the chief executive of Asia Polyurethane Manufacturing, which has seen sales drop by 20 per cent since then. "Everybody wanted to clear their existing stock first."
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