As China exports drop, U.S. peak season freight trade slows to a crawl
On Friday, August 15, 2025, a top loader moves a container at the Fenix Marine Services terminal in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Los Angeles.
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Typically, this year is the time when posts to the United States are in front of the holidays, but 2025 is a different story. As Chinese exports continued to decrease, the general burden trade to the US slowed down to a screening.
According to data from Vizion, imports from China have decreased by 27% annually, and the latest ocean load booking data shows that a traditional load container hurry to the country in late September.
“Normally, we would expect a summit from the last week of September before the golden week,” Golden Chien, President of the Global Shipping and Logistics company Dimerco Express Group. He said. Golden Week is an important holiday week in China where many businesses are closed. “So far there is no clear sign or great orders on the market that tends this tendency.” He said.
According to the data analysis by Vizion, the first five product segments, furniture, toy and sports equipment, electrical devices and components, machines and plastic and plastic products that contribute to the reduction of Chinese exports to the US are.
The category of toy is a good example of what is defined by logistics professionals as the straightening of trade between the United States and China.
Vizion CEO Kyle Henderson, “Toys and sports equipment with 2024 trend, but in the last 10 weeks after the summit, the most intense season of last year’s most intensive season, a flat tendency showed a flat tendency.” He said.
Since May, since the front loading of the inventory from the front was announced for the first time in April, there are some exceptions for the general trend that match the reservation activity volume or gently exceeding the reservation activity volume after a month in which a load container volume increases.
In recent years, the Golden Factors for various factors also contained slowdown in Chinese load shipments – before the threat of 2024’s port strikes in the United States, and in 2023, the fear of consumer demand is lower than the typical shipping activity.
However, this year, according to the Early Intensive Season Preliminary Preliminary and Sonar data of the Trade War, a stable decrease in a more modified level in orders, since it is the story at the load.
Honor Lane transport, one of the many companies that reserve ocean load from China for US -based retailers, wrote that the impact of the trade war on customers in the last note brought a “very short, but strong increase in early June and early June.”
Los Angeles Port, as a result of the tariff pause until July reported a record number of containers.
However, Honor Lane described the period after the increase as “a rapid decline and slow healing”.
“Manufacturers are basically a very slow increase even before the Chinese Golden Week.” “Many customers reported increased inventory levels in the US and temporarily paused.”
According to HLS, ocean carriers have announced 35 empty sails in October so far. An alliance of OCEAN carriers, including CMA CGM, COSCO, Evergreen and OOCL USA suspended Asia on the service path For the first week of September, Long Beach and Oakland are between multiple Chinese ports and harbors in California. Fewer ships mean less container capacity, which increases ocean load rates with a general ratio increase of $ 1,000 per forty -meter container from September 15th.
According to the maritime intelligence, the important negative impact of the trade war on North American trade can be seen in the fact that North American is the only region that has experienced negative load container volume growth during the trade war.
“Typically, a large part of the holiday goods are shipped and continue until October,” Ch Robinson North America Surface Transportation Vice President Noah Hoffman. He said. “He peaked in July this year.”
Compiled by August inventory data Logistics managers directoryTrains that monitor inventory and storage metrics, store or carry money by storing or carrying trade, warns the decrease in load volumes, which have a drip effect on trucks and warehouses.
“We see that the carrying capacity has increased in August in August,” the COLORADO State University Supply Chain Management Associate Professor’s Associate Professor Management, shows that there is not much burden to move all months. ” He said. “Lack of load just before the summit season is a combination of some of the inventories that are probably forward and potentially a combination of being less in the system in general.” He said.
