The last-minute agreement between the US and China to ease tariffs for 90 days has caught shipping lines off guard, triggering a rush to readjust Transpacific capacity ahead of peak season demand.
According to analysis from Sea Intelligence, the market may now face short-term volatility as carriers race to respond to the tariff’s change.
The unexpected truce includes sharp tariff reductions-down to 30 percent from 145 percent on the US side, and from 125 percent to 10 percent on China’s but crucially, the tariffs are not removed entirely.
Additional duties, such as the US’s 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum, remain in place, leading to what Sea-Intelligence refers to as only a “partly” pause.
Sea-Intelligence reports that in recent weeks, carriers have been pulling back Transpacific services in response to declining bookings attributed to earlier tariff levels.
But the last-minute shift now presents an operational challenge: a surge in pre-cut-off shipments is likely, and peak season cargo will need to move no later than mid-July to meet the 14 August deadline.
In its latest Sunday Spotlight, Sea-Intelligence notes that carriers have yet to respond with any substantial injection of capacity to the North America West Coast.
Conversely, some capacity growth is starting to emerge on the East Coast routes, though this remains limited and potentially too late to capture the expected spike in demand.
Weekly data comparisons between 9 and 16 May for the period covering 12 May to 21 July show continued year-on-year capacity reductions across both coasts.
A meaningful uplift on the West Coast only appears from mid- July, with the East Coast seeing signs of recovery slightly earlier, from the end of June.
“This is still very late for a capacity increase, if there is an imminent surge of cargo from China,” Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence, cautioned.
Read our latest piece on how over half of US retailers surveyed by Allianz plan to raise prices in response to rising tariff costs.
The study-covering 4,500 firms across nine countries-revealed that 54 percent of US businesses expect to pass these costs onto consumers, with just 22 percent prepared to absorb them.
DP World London Gateway gains new rail services
Maritime Transport has introduced two intermodal rail services linking DP World London Gateway with its inland terminals at Hams Hall and iPort Doncaster.
Operating Monday to Saturday, the new services began last week in partnership with GB Rail freight.
They were launched in response to rising volumes at DP World London Gateway, where a £1 billion ($1.3 billion) expansion project is set to start this month to boost port capacity.
John Bailey, Managing Director, Intermodal, Maritime Transport said: “London Gateway is seeing strong growth in container volumes, supported by its role in the Gemini Cooperation’s Asia- Europe network and a major expansion project that will further strengthen its position as one of the UK’s leading deep-sea ports.
“These new rail services provide the additional capacity needed to support that growth, enhance our national network, and enable a more meaningful shift from road to rail as part of a lower-car- bon, more efficient UK supply chain.”
Julie Garn, Intermodal Director, GB Rail freight, stated: “Rail plays a hugely important role in our national supply chains.
In addition to driving our economy, moving goods by rail reduces emissions and supports the UK’s transition to more sustainable transport.
“Using rail freight reduces carbon emissions by c.76 percent compared to road.
These new services are a great example of what long-term collaboration can achieve, delivering practical, lower carbon alternatives to road that benefit the wider supply chain.”
Recently, DP World announced that it will invest $2.5 billion towards major infrastructure projects across India, Africa, South America and Europe in response to rising demand for resilient, integrated supply chain solutions.
Revenues take off for Qatar Cargo in FY2025
QATAR Cargo recorded a double-digit improvement in cargo revenues during the 2024/25 fiscal year, while there was a smaller increase in cargo carried.
The Doha hubbed airline saw total revenues for the fiscal year running to the end of March increase 17.5 percent year on year to QAR17.9billion (US$4.9 billion).
However, cargo tonnes carried increased by the lower amount of 1.9 percent year on year to 3.1 million tonnes.
The carrier said it remained the largest cargo airline in the world last year with a market share of 7.1 percent, according to IATA statistics.
The higher revenues outpaced improved airfreight rates for the year, while the tonnage increase lagged behind overall market performance as the air cargo industry registered a double-digit demand increase last year.
The airline attributed its performance last year to its agility in adapting to shifting market conditions, a focus on investing in digitalisation, deeper data-driven analyses and its best-in-class reliability.
Recovery in transpacific air cargo capacity but short of last year’s levels
WIDEBODY freighter capacity operating on the transpacific trade lane has continued to recover recently but still lags behind the levels reported a year ago.
Recent statistics from consultant and data provider Rotate show that widebody freighter capacity operating between Asia Pacific and North America has increased 18 percent compared with the same period last week the equivalent of 10 widebody freighter flights.
Last week, carriers had been rapidly pulling capacity out of the market as demand declined due to the US ending of the de minimis exemption for ecommerce parcels from China.
This followed on from the implementation of 145 percent tariffs on all other imports in April.
At one point early last week, transpacific freighter capacity was down by 40 freighter flights per day compared with the April average, which represents a decline of 4,000 tonnes per day or 40 percent of previously operated capacity.
Following recent talks between the US and China, the tariff to be paid for de minimis shipments transported through postal networks mostly ecommerce parcels will be reduced to 54 percent (or a flat fee of US$100) from the previous level of 120 percent.
Other non-postal ecommerce de minimis shipments will be subject to the 30 percent rate.
Meanwhile, the US reduced its overall tariff rate from 145 percent to 30 percent, and China reduced its rate to 10 percent.
Since then, capacity on the Asia Pacific-North American trade lane has been recovering, although it still lags behind last year, according to London’s Air Cargo News.
Mexico's cargo theft crisis with food and beverage shipments hardest hit
CARGO theft remains a critical threat to logistics networks across Mexico, with the first quarter of 2025 revealing both troubling trends and tactical shifts in criminal behavior.
According to Overhaul’s Q1 2025 Cargo Theft Report, an overwhelming 81 percent of all cargo theft incidents reported nationwide involved violence, highlighting the persistent danger facing drivers and supply chain operators.
Geographically, theft was highly concentrated with nearly 78 percent of cargo thefts taking place in Mexico’s central and Southeast regions, with the central region alone accounting for 61 percent of all incidents, reports New York’s Freight Waves.
Two states, Mexico and Puebla, each reported 19 percent of the national total, maintaining their status. as the most dangerous regions for cargo transport.
Hapag- Lloyd expands fleet
GERMAN container shipping major Hapag-Lloyd has added the eleventh ‘Hamburg Express’ class containership to its fleet – the 24,000 TEU vessel, Genova Express.
The vessel was named at shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean’s shipyard Okpo, South Korea, and will soon join the Far East-North Europe Service as part of the company’s new Gemini Cooperation, according to Rotterdam’s Offshore Energy.
The ‘Hamburg Express’ class is a series of 12 dual-fuel container ships powered by LNG and designed to run on future-ready al ternatives like green methane.
According to Hapag-Lloyd, the new buildings are “the largest container ships” ever to sail under the German flag.
Thanks to their size, design, and LNG dual- fuel engines, they are expected to boost efficiency per container transported and reduce emissions by 20 to 25 percent in the near future.
The eponymous flagship of this series, Hamburg Express, was christened at the Container Terminal Burchardkai in the Port of Hamburg on November 4, 2024.
In other news, the company placed an order for six 16,800 TEU box ships at Hanwa Ocean shipyard in South Korea at the beginning of 2025, according to the Greek shipbroker Intermodal.
Lion City's box volume up 6pc despite global tariff uncertainty: minister
SINGAPORE’s port handled 6.1 percent more containers in the first four months of 2025 than in the same period in 2024, despite disruptions to supply chains caused by tariffs imposed by the United States.
Singapore’s Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said container throughput reached 14.18 million TEU between January and April 2025, reports The Straits Times of Singapore.
“Container (throughput) has remained strong despite what’s happening around the world, with greater turbulence, uncertainty and shifts in global supply chains,” he said, adding that the government is continuing to monitor the fluid situation.
He explained that the growth could have come from companies trying to front load shipments ahead of the implementation of higher tariff rates by the Americans.
Mr Chee was speaking to reporters during a visit last week to the PSA Pasir Panjang Terminal Building, where he had been inspecting an ongoing trial to use autonomous prime movers.
On May 12, the US and China had agreed to suspend part of their tariffs on their respective exports for 90 days.
This was the latest development in what has become a tit fort at exchange between the two superpowers over trade since US President Donald Trump announced sweeping global tariffs on April 2.