The China Trade

Containerized shipments to and from China have fallen sharply as trade disputes between Beijing and Washington have intensified. Exhibit 8 traces the fall-off in containerized tonnage arriving from China and Hong at the major USWC ports during the first six months of this year. Compared with June 2024, containerized import tonnage originating in China fell by 25.8% at the San Pedro Bay Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, by 31.7% at the Northwest Seaport Alliance Ports of Tacoma and Seattle, and by 43.4% at the Port of Oakland.

At the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, containerized export tonnage shipped to China/Hong Kong was off by 33.3% in June from a year earlier. A more modest fall-off 7.3% was sustained at the Northwest Seaport Alliance ports, while the Port of Oakland recorded a much more modest 1.6% slip. The declines between this June and June in pre-COVID 2019 are even starker. Containerized export tonnage to China and Hong Kong is down by 65.6% through the two Southern California ports, by 48.5% at the NWSA gateway, and by 73.4% at the Port of Oakland.