Shanghai’s port traffic hit a record 5 million containers in January as companies rushed to ship goods before new US tariffs, reports Bloomberg News. These tariffs could impact 40% of Chinese exports to the US, affecting 0.9% of China’s GDP. They write:
China’s busiest port processed a record amount of goods in January, as companies rushed to get their products onto ships before US tariffs kicked in and ahead of a long local holiday.
Shanghai’s port processed a record 5 million containers last month, according to data released Monday, well above any previous month in data going back to 2007. Last year, the port was the first globally to process over 50 million containers in one year, as rising global demand, falling Chinese prices, and the threat of tariffs combined to push the value of exports to a record.
Chinese firms shipped almost $525 billion worth of goods directly to the US last year, the third-highest tally on record. However, since these companies have increasingly shipped products via nations such as Mexico and Vietnam to the US, President Donald Trump’s possible imposition of tariffs on all imports could affect that trade too.[…]
Despite the record, trade flows slowed in the last week of January and the first week of February, according to separate government data, as companies shut down for more than a week during the Lunar New Year holiday. […]
Bloomberg Economics estimates an additional 10% levy could knock out 40% of Chinese goods sent to the US, jeopardizing 0.9% of China’s gross domestic product.
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