Cathrin Mueller/Reutrs
American importers have rushed to load up on Chinese goods this week after the US and China agreed to a temporary truce on tariffs, but a top shipping executive warned that the rebound may not last.
Bookings for cargo capacity from China to the US have shot up this week after the two economic giants agreed to roll back tariffs, said Rolf Habben Jansen, the CEO of Hapag-Lloyd. The company is the world’s fifth-largest shipping firm by capacity.
“We have seen over the last couple of days that bookings have indeed been up more than 50% compared to what we saw the last four weeks,” the CEO said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.
Habben Jansen said the rebound came after China-to-US container ship bookings crashed 20-30% in the last few weeks as Trump’s 145% tariff on Chinese goods took hold.
This week’s rapid turnaround followed the US slashing the combined tariff rate on Chinese goods to 30% for 90 days following the US and China’s trade talks in Switzerland over the weekend. The new tariff rate took effect on Wednesday.
San Francisco-based container-tracking software provider Vizion said on Wednesday that US-China container bookings surged 277% in the week from May 5.
“We are definitely starting to see the bookings return now that this temporary pause is in effect,” wrote Ben Tracy, Vizion’s vice-president of strategic business development, in a LinkedIn post.
Hapag-Lloyd’s Habben Jansen said it was unclear if the current booking euphoria could hold.
“Right now, we see a surge that could be very short-lived, but it could also last for 60 or 90 days, very much dependent on what comes out of those trade talks between China and the US,” Habben Jansen said.
Last week, shipping giant Maersk said customers reacted “very, very fast on canceling orders or stopping orders” following Trump’s tariff announcement on “Liberation Day.”
Container volumes between the US and China plunged 30% to 40% in April, said Maersk’s CEO, Vincent Clerc.
Earlier this month, logistics experts and shipping specialists told Business Insider that the US could face price hikes and empty shelves within weeks as Trump’s tariffs hit supply chains.
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