Rates for shipping containers traveling between the Far East and the U.S. West Coast have fallen, suggesting that the impact of the U.S.-China trade war is diminishing, at least for now.
The early June peak in rates between the Far East and the U.S. was a sign, logistics analysts said, of shippers’ eagerness to move goods into the U.S. during the 90-day tariff pause announced by the U.S. and China on 12 May.
Now, two leading container indexes, Drewry and Xeneta, have released data which suggests that the impact of the tariff pause is starting to wane.
"The decline is a direct result of low demand for U.S.-bound cargo and is a sign that the recent surge in imports to the U.S., which occurred after the temporary halt of higher US tariffs, will fail to have the lasting impact we had initially expected," Drewry Analyst Hind Chitty said in an industry update on 26 June.
“The Transpacific into U.S. West Coast is the key battleground for carriers when it comes to China exports,” Xeneta Chief Analyst Peter Sand added.
Signifying how rapidly rates change ...
