Container ship bookings for China-to-U.S. cargo have surged since the countries declared a 90-day truce on punitive tit-for-tat tariffs last weekend, operators said, spawning traffic jams at Chinese ports and factories that could take weeks to clear.
https://gcaptain.com/container-ship-owners-swamped-as-us-china-trade-detente-revives-demand/
Container freight spot rates shot up on the transpacific trades this week, with an immediate surge in demand following news of a new 90-day hiatus in the China-US trade war.
https://gcaptain.com/spot-rates-jump-as-shippers-rush-to-beat-tariff-clock/
The Port of Long Beach, California, marked its strongest April on record, handling 867,493 twenty-foot equivalent units, a 15.6% increase compared to the same month a year ago.
Volumes surpassed the previous record set in April 2022 by 5.7% at the hub. Imports rose significantly to 419,828 TEUs, representing a 15.1% increase y/y, while exports declined by 4.5% to 93,842 TEUs.
Empty containers saw the most dramatic change, jumping 23% to 353,824 TEUs, as demand for boxes moving out of Chinese...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/long-beach-sees-record-teus-on-trade-war-effect
Importers rushing to ship Chinese goods to the US using a short reprieve from paralyzing tariffs could provide a much-needed boost to global freighters.
https://gcaptain.com/tariff-truce-spurs-pacific-trade-rush-boosting-global-shippers/
Hapag-Lloyd saw container bookings from China to the United States jump by 50% following the break in the tariff battle between the trading partners.
In comments during an earnings call, Chief Executive Rolf Habben Jansen explained that while recent bookings were down 20%-30%, there has been “a surge of over 50% in recent days,” though he noted the difficulty in predicting exact growth patterns.
“We expect capacity to return fairly swiftly. We have deployed smaller ships instead of doing blanks...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/hapag-lloyd-expects-swift-china-ramp-up-after-bookings-jump-50
The Port of Long Beach is anticipating a significant downturn in May shipments following its strongest April on record, as the effects of recently paused tariffs ripple through the supply…
https://gcaptain.com/port-of-long-beach-braces-for-may-slump-following-record-breaking-april/
Canadian National expects to haul slightly more rail freight in 2025 than a year ago, as President Donald Trump’s tariff war tempers expectations for cross-border trade.
“There was a new Trump administration to start the year, so we thought there would be lots of uncertainty,” Chief Executive Tracy Robinson told the Bank of America industrials conference Tuesday in New York. “We continue to be optimistic that trade deals are going to get done, as we saw over the weekend.”
A third of the...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/tariffs-temper-canadian-national-outlook
And just like that, the United States is back in the China import business.
Demand soared as shippers rushed to book space on container vessels headed to the U.S., just one day after the trade partners agreed to pause reciprocal tariffs that had reduced by a third volumes on the eastbound trans-Pacific.
Some of the first hard data to come out of the tariff timeout showed just how much inventory was sitting in warehouses, factories and ports waiting for a resolution to what had become a global...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/tariff-two-step-after-pause-china-us-container-bookings-soar-377
Even as the United States and China called timeout on their tariff war, Maersk, the world’s second-largest container line, wants shippers to get back in the game.
The Denmark-based carrier (MAERSK-B.CO) is offering a flash sale with deep discounts on dozens of inland trade corridors in the United States and Canada through Maersk Spot, the Danish carrier’s on-demand digital booking service aimed at small and medium-size shippers.
The promotional pricing, announced in an email to customers early...
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/maersk-looks-to-fill-up-container-ships-in-a-flash-sale
The world’s No. 5 container carrier is seeing a jump in business this week after the US and China lowered tariffs, the company’s CEO said, as the trade war cease-fire unleashes a wave of pent-up demand for transpacific shipping.
https://gcaptain.com/hapag-lloyd-ceo-sees-huge-surge-in-volume-last-few-days/