Tariff Truce Triggers 50% Surge In China-U.S. Container Bookings, Says Hapag-Lloyd

The German firm's CEO expected a volume surge in the upcoming 60 to 90 days.

Freight shipping firm Hapag-Lloyd said on Wednesday that container bookings from China to the U.S. have jumped more than 50% after a pause in reciprocal tariffs.

A tit-for-tat tariff war between the U.S. and China had threatened to drastically reduce trade between the two countries. The company warned in April that container bookings to the U.S. from China had dropped by around one-third since the start of April.

After repeated calls for negotiations from industry bodies, U.S. and Chinese officials agreed to lower tariffs on each other’s goods. Currently, there is a 30% tariff on Chinese goods, compared to a steep 145% tariff rate earlier.

“Bookings have indeed been up with more than 50% compared to what we saw the last four weeks, and they are also up in double-digit percentages compared to the period before the tariffs,” CEO Rolf Habben Jansen said on a call with analysts.

The German firm's chief executive expected a volume surge in the upcoming 60 to 90 days.

Jansen said there could likely be some order front-loading before the end of the 90-day pause, and much would depend on the negotiations between the U.S. and China.

Bloomberg had reported, citing a Jefferies note, that freight rates on the trans-Pacific route also jumped from $2,000 per forty-foot equivalent unit in mid-April to around $2,500 this week.

The iShares MSCI China ETF (FXI) has risen 20.2% year-to-date (YTD) while the Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (QQQ) has gained close to 1% and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is down 0.3% in the same period.

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