TransPacific Cargo Trade Decimated by Trump's Tariff War

Dozens of freight vessels due to sail from China to the United States have cancelled their journeys, according to a new report, which said carriers are seeking to manage a pullback in orders due to the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump early this month.

Freight company HLS Group had reported a total of 80 cancelled sailings out of China by Wednesday, according to a report by CNBC. It said HLS sent a note to clients recently saying that the trade war had led to a plunge in demand, so carriers had started to suspend or adjust trans-Pacific services.

“The impact of the diminished freight container traffic to North America will be significant for many links in the economy and supply chain, including the ports and logistics companies moving the freight,” the report said.

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It said that if each shipment carried 8,000 to 10,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), that would represent a drop in freight traffic of between 640,000-800,000 containers.

And that would “lead to decreased crane operations at the ports, lower fees that could be collected, and declines in container pick-ups and transports by trucks, rails, and to warehouses for storage.”

An earlier report by Radio Free Asia said that no cargo ships have left the “once-bustling ports in Shanghai and Guangdong,” and that “operations at export factories in provinces that feed China’s export empire have ground to a halt.”

Local businessmen said stacks of shipping containers that failed to be loaded onto ships bound for the US by April 9 were now piled high at Shanghai and Guangdong ports, it said.

There is a sombre mood on the US west coast also, as Trump’s tariffs have intensified concerns about job losses at US ports, Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

“The Port of Long Beach in Southern California expects a 20% volume reduction this year if the tariffs continue as planned, worrying officials and seafarers alike,” it said.

Shipping analysts say it is hard to determine how the trade crisis will play out – much will hinge on whether the US and China can achieve a trade deal – but until that happens, it is expected to greatly disrupt the shipping of containers from China and other parts of Asia to the US.