Donald Trump’s threat to impose widespread tariffs has caused an increase in the price of maritime freight from Asia to the United States, according to the vice president of the Mexican Association of Importers and Exporters (ANIERM) for North America, Jorge Canavati.
“With Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs, American companies are accelerating their imports, especially from Asia,” Canavati said.
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He said the acceleration of those imports will continue until spring, which saturates the capacity of container shipping lines.
“The demand is so fierce (to find a container), that maritime cost rates are already increasing. “They want to import the largest volume possible before the possible tariffs are implemented,” he told Forbes Mexico.
“I am seeing that the prices (of maritime freight rates) have increased quite a bit in imports from Asia to the United States, we saw it from Japan to the United States. It is a domino effect in everything and there are also threats of strikes from the port unions, which are jumping,” he said.
Since Donald Trump’s victory, global maritime freight rates have increased more than 20 percent, while in all of 2024 they rose more than 85 percent, according to Freightos Baltic Index (FBX).
At the beginning of 2024, transporting a container on a ship cost 2,307 dollars, the cost of maritime freight worldwide one day after Trump’s victory cost 3,564 dollars, and in the first week of January it was 4,290 dollars.
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They clarify that freight rates rise every year for the Chinese New Year
Maritime freight rates rise every year for the Chinese New Year, when many manufacturers give vacations to their employees, explained Juan Pablo Pacheco, president of Amacarga.
“Marine freight rates are increasing because the demand for containers increases and there is not as much supply. So the behavior will be very natural to what we have seen in past years,” he said.
Pacheco recalled that there is no shortage of containers for the transfer of merchandise from Asia to the United States, but that every year many importers and exporters rush to move cargo so that the Chinese New Year does not reach them.
He said that so far Trump’s statements have not had a high impact on the movement of merchandise, because “it is already known that something will happen and until it happens it will not be reflected in the numbers.”
Meanwhile, Canavati recalled that during the Covid-19 pandemic the price of maritime rates had a sharp increase.
“During the pandemic, the entire logistics, procurement and supply chain collapsed, it is even the inflation that we are experiencing right now although people do not want to see it,” he stated.
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He added that when the pandemic ended, people went out to consume, but the market, companies and suppliers were not ready.
