Tag Archives: Port of Los Angeles

Washington Post: This Los Angeles port is among the first casualties of Trump’s trade war

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Empty berths and idle cranes show the effects of sky-high tariffs on Chinese goods.

The number of shipping containers that arrived at the nation’s top container port last week was roughly one-third lower than during the same period last year — a sharper decline than during the depths of the Great Recession. More than one-fifth of the giant ships that were scheduled to call in Los Angeles this month have already canceled, and that number is expected to rise.

Trump’s 145 percent tariffs on Chinese goods — and Beijing’s triple-digit retaliation — are bringing a swift halt to the trans-Pacific flow of electronics, clothing, furniture, industrial parts and everything else that the world’s two largest economies exchange.

los-angeles-port-tariffs-trade-tensions

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/05/11/los-angeles-port-tariffs-trade-tensions

Fortune: Trump calls emptying U.S. ports a ‘good thing’ despite supply-chain panic because ‘that means we lose less money’

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As logistics professionals sound the alarms on emptying U.S. ports as a result of steep tariffs, President Donald Trump said those major import slowdowns are actually a boon.

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Trump not only acknowledged the shipping slowdown in a Thursday press briefing announcing a trade deal with the UK; he seemed heartened by it.

“We’re seeing as a result that ports here in the U.S., the traffic has really slowed and now thousands of dockworkers and truck drivers are worried about their jobs,” a reporter said in the press briefing.

“That means we lose less money,” Trump said. “When you say it slowed down, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”

Trump is deranged!

Trump calls emptying U.S. ports a ‘good thing’ despite supply-chain panic because ‘that means we lose less money’
The president has repeatedly claimed the U.S. has a $1 trillion trade deficit with China, though economists argue a trade deficit isn’t inherently negative.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-calls-emptying-u-ports-180609056.html

CNN: The first boats carrying Chinese goods with 145% tariffs are arriving in LA. Shipments are cut in half. Expect shortages soon

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American consumers are on the cusp of tough choices because of President Donald Trump’s trade war.

Ships now pulling into US harbors from China are the first to be subject to the massive tariffs that America is imposing on most Chinese imports. That means, in a matter of weeks, consumers will face higher prices and shortages of certain items.

Imports from China have fallen dramatically since Trump imposed steep tariffs – particularly since last month, when the tit-for-tat trade war sent the tariff on most Chinese goods up to 145%.

“This week, we’re down about 35% compared to the same time last year, and these cargo ships coming in are the first ones to be attached to the tariffs that were levied against China and other locations last month,” Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, told CNN Tuesday. “That’s why the cargo volume is so light.”

The drop-off in imports from China on the boats now coming into port is more than 50%, Seroka said. Many importers have canceled previous orders because US businesses aren’t interested in paying the steep tariff, which can more than double the price of Chinese goods.

The Port of LA had expected 80 ships to arrive in May, but 20% of those have been canceled, Seroka said. Customers have already canceled 13 sailings for June.

The first boats carrying Chinese goods with 145% tariffs are arriving in LA. Shipments are cut in half. Expect shortages soon
American consumers are on the cusp of tough choices because of President Donald Trump’s trade war.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/economy/ar-AA1EgCdN

MSNBC: Trump’s treasury secretary accidentally summed up the bitter truth about his tariffs

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Amid his verbal squirming in Tuesday’s news conference, Bessent offered a perhaps unintended revelation. “President Trump is interested in the jobs of the future, not the jobs of the past,” the secretary said. “We don’t need to necessarily have a booming textile industry like where I grew up again, but we do want to have precision manufacturing and bring that back.”

But textiles and other low-cost goods that rely on cheap foreign labor are subject to Trump’s tariffs, which means higher prices for consumers even if Americans won’t ever make those products again. And while precision manufacturing is great, it tends to be much more automated, which requires a smaller number of highly skilled employees. That means Americans won’t be working in that kind of factory by the tens of millions. 

In other words, Bessent accidentally summed up the effects of Trump’s tariffs: we’ll pay higher prices, but get little in return. Even before we feel the worst of it, Americans already understand. They aren’t happy and, if a recession comes, Trump will really feel their wrath.

Trump’s treasury secretary accidentally summed up the bitter truth about his tariffs
Before his second term began, President Donald Trump said that tariffs were “not going to be a cost to you, it’s going to be a cost to another country.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-s-treasury-secretary-accidentally-summed-up-the-bitter-truth-about-his-tariffs/ar-AA1DUn0r

The Atlantic: Don’t Look at Stock Markets. Look at the Ports.

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Stock markets plunged for days after President Donald Trump announced steep tariffs on imports from around the world. The sell-off ebbed only when he suspended most, but not all, of the new measures for 90 days. The ticker tape is just one indicator of an economy, and other signs are growing more and more ominous—including at the Port of Los Angeles, where high tariffs on China are crushing maritime traffic. “Essentially all shipments out of China for major retailers and manufacturers have ceased,” Eugene Seroka, the executive director of the port, said on April 24.

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The Port of Los Angeles, the busiest containerized-cargo port in the Western Hemisphere, processes about 17 percent of everything the United States imports or exports in shipping containers. The adjoining Port of Long Beach accounts for another 14 percent. Over the years, a whole ecosystem has arisen to support the loading and unloading of the cars, clothes, electronic gadgets, and other things that people want. There are workers and warehouses, trucks and loading pads, security structures and rail lines.

Seroka estimated that cargo arrivals would soon be down 35 percent over the same time last year. At the moment, the drop in traffic seems likelier to accelerate than to reverse. The number of cargo ships canceling port calls or entire voyages is on the rise. A number of shipments now under way were instigated before Trump’s so-called Liberation Day tariff announcement, on April 2. According to Forto, a cargo-management and -tracking company, reservations for shipping products must normally be placed two weeks before a cargo vessel launches. The trip from China from California typically takes two or more additional weeks. In other words, the full effects of U.S. tariff policies on maritime traffic may not be apparent for some time.

Don’t Look at Stock Markets. Look at the Ports.
A drop in maritime traffic suggests that the worst is yet to come.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/don-t-look-at-stock-markets-look-at-the-ports/ar-AA1E6eR8

Barron’s: Tariff Revenue Isn’t Coming Close to Trump’s $3 Billion Daily Promise

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President Donald Trump has said U.S. tariffs are bringing in $3 billion of revenue a day. He has suggested they could one day replace income taxes.

Thus far, the data from the U.S. Treasury Department’s daily statements tell a different story.

Since tariffs rates were raised to current levels on April 9, the U.S. has collected $14.7 billion in revenue from imports, a 135% jump over the same days in 2024, and up 83% versus the comparable March 2025 period.

That’s a daily average of $918 million, far less than Trump cited earlier this month.

And from that $918M daily subtract loss of tourism, other business losses, and any resulting unemployment. King Donald pretends to win; we little people lose, always.

Tariff Revenue Isn’t Coming Close to Trump’s $3 Billion Daily Promise
Since tariff levels were raised on April 9, the U.S. is collecting an average of $918 million a day. Donald Trump has promised $3 billion.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/tariff-revenue-isn-t-coming-close-to-trump-s-3-billion-daily-promise/ar-AA1DMkPg

Guardian: Trump tariffs prompt slump in shipments to US ports

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Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic trade war has triggered a slump in shipments to the US’s most important ports, amid the growing risk of a recession in the world’s largest economy.

In the latest sign of the US president’s tariff policies rattling the economy, figures show the number of vessels scheduled to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles next week is down by almost a third on the same period a year earlier.

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Analysts said the latest shipping figures, which are updated on a daily basis, indicated the fallout was escalating.

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Highlighting that it typically takes between 20 and 40 days for a sea container to travel from China to the US, Sløk said there would be a knock-on impact on demand for US trucking from the middle of next month, which could lead to empty shelves and layoffs in the distribution and retail industries.

This could lead to a recession by the summer, he added.

Thank the narcissist in the White House! Does he care? No!

Trump tariffs prompt slump in shipments to US ports
Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic trade war has triggered a slump in shipments to the US’s most important ports, amid the growing risk of a recession in the world’s largest economy. In the latest sign of the US president’s tariff policies rattling the economy, figures show the number of vessels scheduled to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles next week is down by almost a third on the same period a year earlier. According to the data compiled…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-tariffs-prompt-slump-in-shipments-to-us-ports/ar-AA1DLit0