American importers rushed to take care of Chinese products this week after the United States and China have accepted a temporary truce on prices, but a senior maritime transport official warned that the rebound does not last.
The reservations for the loading capacity of China in the United States won this week after the two economic giants agreed to retreat the prices, said Rolf Habben Jansen, the CEO of Hapag-Lloyd. The company is the fifth in -capacity global navigation company.
“We have seen in the past two days that reservations have indeed increased by more than 50% compared to what we have seen in the past four weeks,” the CEO said on the call for the company’s first quarter on Wednesday.
Habben Jansen said the rebound came after reservations for China-US container ships crashed 20 to 30% in recent weeks while the 145% Trump price on Chinese goods settled.
This week’s rapid turnaround has followed the rate of combined price on Chinese products at 30% for 90 days after American and Chinese commercial talks in Switzerland during the weekend. The new rate rate came into force on Wednesday.
Vizion, the San Francisco-based follow-up software supplier said on Wednesday that reservations for American-Chinese container had jumped 277% during the week from May 5.
“We are definitely starting to see the reservations come back now that this temporary break is in force,” Ben Tracy wrote, vice-president of Vizion’s strategic business development in a LinkedIn article.
Habben Jansen of Hapag-Lloyd said that it was not clear if the current reservation euphoria could hold.
“Right now, we are seeing a wave that could be very short-lived, but it could also last 60 or 90 days, very dependent on what comes out of these commercial talks between China and the United States,” said Habben Jansen.
Last week, the Maersk shipping giant said that customers reacted “very, very quickly on the cancellation of orders or the orders” after Trump’s pricing announcement on the “Liberation Day”.
Container volumes between the United States and China dived from 30% to 40% in April, said CEO of Maersk, Vincent Clerc.
Earlier this month, logistics experts and shipping specialists said Initiate of Business That the United States could face price increases and empty the shelves in a few weeks while Trump’s prices hit the supply chains.
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