News / Post-tariff US container imports down 13% year on year

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The so-called reciprocal tariffs imposed on 2 April reduced transpacific Far East-North America shipments by 10% in April, according to newly released volume data for the month from Container Trade Statistics (CTS).

Volumes on CTS’s Far East-North America were down 13.4% compared with April 2024, at just over 1.5m teu, while overall North America imports dropped 11.5% year on year.

“10% of this decrease [is] attributed to a pullback in Far East exports,” CTS said.

“Far East imports also saw a significant 5.1% drop, driven primarily by reduced exports to North America – the transpacific trade remains a key area to watch as the year progresses,” it added.

Due to the circa two-week time lag between a container being loaded in Asia and unloaded on the US west coast, it is likely that up to half of April’s volumes were booked before the tariff levels were announced, so it is expected that May will be the first full month when the effect of President Trump’s tariffs will be seen – although with so many policy U-turns, pauses and pronouncements since, it is going to be exceptionally difficult for analysts to determine their exact impact on freight demand.

In the immediate aftermath of tariff implementation date of 2 April, The Loadstar reported a 30-50% drop in bookings, while 14 April 90-day tariff timeout applied to every country except China prompted a sudden booking rush.

Nonetheless, every import trade into the US was down year-on-year: the transatlantic, where Jaguar Land Rover was among a number of major shippers who confirmed shipments fell, was down by 7.3% year on year; from Latin America down 8.7%; from India and the Middle East by 7.3%; from Africa by 7.6%; Australasia 2.6% and the intra-North America trade was down 14.4%, possibly explained by the fact that Canada and Mexico were hit by tariffs before April.

Globally, container shipments in April declined 4.5% on the previous month, although CTS’s revised March volumes now hold the record for the highest global liftings ever recorded in the CTS database, standing at 16.3m teu.

“Whether this surge is due to shippers stockpiling in anticipation of economic changes or not, it highlights a strong start to 2025,” CTS added, noting that year-to-date volumes are 5.8% up on the corresponding period in 2024, and “potentially providing a positive outlook for the rest of the year”.

“As we move further into 2025, it will be crucial to monitor smaller trade lanes that could become the missing piece in global trade patterns as the market adjusts to new dynamics,” it added.

For example, following yesterday’s analysis of the burgeoning Asia-West Africa trade, spurring MSC’s decision to deploy a series of 24,000 teu ships on its AFL service, CTS data for April showed a 11.4% year-on-year increase to 436,000 teu.

The backhaul West Africa-Far East trade grew 14.5% to 127,000 teu.

Meanwhile, the CTS global price index, which records both contract and spot rates paid over the course of last year, continued to soften in April 2025, decreasing by 2 points, to stand at 78.

“This marks the lowest level since June 2023, continuing a downward trend that started in December 2024,” CTS said.