Container Ship Owners Flooded When The American China Trade Dissente Revives The Question

By Lisa Baertlein, Farah Master and Casey Hall

Los Angeles/Hong Kong (Reuters) -Container Shipping bookers for China-to-us Load have risen since the countries have been declared a 90-day ceasefire last weekend as punitive tit-for-tat rates, said operators, the Operators, the destination recordings in Chinese ports and factories.

American importers from sneakers and banks racing to building supplies and car parts to get goods before the deadline restores the rates again, making it a stage for disturbances that remember the worldwide transport quagmire during the COVID-19 Pandemie.

The charging bump at large trade gateways such as the Yantian port of Shenzhen, which processes more than a quarter of the China's export to the United States, has shipowners who are looking for berths and adapting ship schemes.

“The question is so high that we can only serve customers who have concluded long-term contracts with us,” a spokesperson for the German container ship operator Hapag-Lloyd told Reuters. “We hardly have any room for spontaneous bookings.”

Container-tracking software provider Vizion said that the average bookings for the seven days ended on Wednesday 277% rose to 21,530 20-foot equivalent units of the 5,709 TEU average for the week ending on 5 May.

Owners of factories who make toys on a holiday decor, Reuters said that they previously frozen load of books on their way to American stores, including Walmart.

Lalo, for example, that is selling BabyMeubilar online and via retailers such as Target and Amazon.com, is one of the companies that have given factories the green light to move their completed orders.

“We had hundreds of thousands of units waiting to send,” said Lalo co-founder Michael Weider. “These products can now come on the water.”

“Everyone is very busy from my company, at my friend's companies,” said Richard Lee, CEO of NCL Logistics, in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen in China. “They prepare a lot of charge, many products, to be sent from China to the US immediately”

Second Tsunami?

The shipping increase will translate in the coming weeks into a stream of arrivals in the ports of the West Coast in the West Coast.

Nevertheless, industry experts, including the executive director of the port of Los Angeles – the busiest American seaport and no. 1 for ocemanses from China, no tsunami of freight at the level of freight. They rather project a large but manageable wave.

On Thursday, the off-contract spot rate shot from Shanghai to Los Angeles 16% of the previous week to $ 3,136 per 40-foot container, according to data from Maritime Consultancy Drewry. That is less than half than in April 2024, but could jump strongly to around $ 6,000 per container if shipowners go through the tariff increases on 1 June.

In the early days of the Pandemie, the demand for cable -questioning for factories and container ships, nodding supply chains. Shipping and shopping experts said that 90 days is not enough time for most factories to fill in new orders.

There are fewer slots available on cargo ships because owners of Schip China-to-us travel and schedules had settled. Now ocean carriers cancel “cancellations” of Zeilingen, Drewry said.

However, the question is clearly different this time.

Trump's second period rates have weakened American retail, housing and production – important factors of container shipments.

Moreover, many American companies are on inventory that was collected before Trump imposed rates on China and other countries. And nobody knows what the import duties will be when the 90 -day deadline ends in August.

The Trump administration confirmed to Reuters that the American rate would be reset at 54%, assuming that no agreement is reached by the deadline.

High fear

Many retailers give priority to which products to order and send, said Jessica Dankert, vice -president of the supply chain for the Retail Industry Leaders Association Trade Group, whose members Home Depot, Gap and Dollar include.

“It is still 30% at the end of the day,” says Jamie Salter, CEO of Authentic Brands Group, referring to rates about China. Authentic brands owns and reads clothing brands, including Reebok, Champion and Forever 21.

Some major suppliers to the big three car manufacturers of Detroit told Reuters that they are flying in requests from customers in parts from China and swallow them.

Others refused to add to stocks and said they missed the space and funds to do this.

A Halloween goods exporter from the city of Yiwu in China, who said her English name, Cecilia, that the tariff increases have lowered the total orders this year and warned that potential buyers no longer have time.

“If you order now, you will wait anxiously to see if it will be too late,” she said.

Jimmy Zollo, CEO of Joe and Bella, sells clothing made for adults made in Chinese who have difficulty dressing because of arthritis, dementia or in a wheelchair. He placed a new order with his supplier, although the 90-day window could close before he can hand in.

“We hope that a new trade agreement will be implemented and the reduced rates will not expire,” said Zollo.

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Helen Reid in London, Kalea Hall and Nora Eckert in Detroit, Farah -Master in Hong Kong, Casey Hall in Shanghai and David Lawder in Washington; Edit by Richard Chang)

Container ship owners flooded when the American China Trade Dissente revives the question