Political tensions between the US and China are contributing to lower container shipments between the world’s two largest economies, on top of an already-underway reshaping of global trade, according to a major shipping industry boss.
Jeremy Nixon, chief executive officer of Ocean Network Express, said recently: “We are seeing a de-leveraging of trade between the US and China. Many companies in the US are looking to reduce down the amount of imports they have got coming from China.”
The share of boxes arriving in the US from China has fallen by about 10 percentage points over the past year, said Nixon, whose company is among the top 10 container shippers. As a result, the US is establishing stronger ties with other trade partners including Europe.
The world’s two largest economies have been steadily becoming less reliant on one another for much of the past year. That’s been driven primarily by a broad-based slowdown in the global economy, and it’s been particularly acute for containers as the demand boom that took place during the pandemic reversed.
Source: bnnbloomberg.ca