News / To reshore or not to reshore the question for shippers as tariffs are 'bandied about'

Amid the onslaught against China from the White House, US companies are becoming increasingly aware that the authorities in Beijing are turning their gaze on them, Bjorn Vang Jensen, EVP of ocean at Easy Speed International Logistics, has told The Loadstar Podcast.

“It hasn’t escaped the attention that China from time to time picks quite publicly on individual American companies – they don’t want to be one of them, and they don’t know what’s going to happen next,” said Mr Vang Jensen.

“So you are seeing them reshoring. China + 1, I think, is going for many to be either 1 + China or China + 2 or China + 3, because that is the only way companies can maintain an agile and nimble supply chain.”

With policy shifts seemingly occurring on a near-daily basis, how and where to reshore is getting harder, with Mr Vang Jensen stressing that, even in a stable environment, “it’s a super complex decision” to make.

He warned supply chain chiefs not to think of “tariffs being bandied about” as a short-term measure, pointing out that already people “seem to have forgotten” what happened with Mexico last week, when it was facing tariffs of 25% before a temporary reprieve.

“I think we’re going to see at least four years of tariffs being bandied about on different countries; they’re being used as a blunt instrument to bend countries to the US administration’s will,” said Mr Vang Jensen.

“The threat of tariffs will come up again and again, and it will force manufacturers and shippers, importers, exporters, to constantly try and balance their networks to make sure some of it is safe, and hope that some of it is almost safe.”

James Hookham, of the Global Shippers Forum, said that from the shipper perspective, the question would very much be on what Mr Trump hoped to achieve with tariffs, “beyond the airtime and the headlines”.

He said the assumption many were making was that the US’s “end goal” was to make a case that it would be better for all to invest and produce in America. “It must be about creating a better environment for shifting production there,” he added.

But Mr Vang Jensen added: “If people think the opening of factories is a sign that everything is moving back, they are solely mistaken”.