Shipping Volume Set To Plummet Next Week, Port Of Los Angeles Says

The Port of Los Angeles is projecting a drop in cargo volume of more than a third starting next week, as Trump’s 145% tax on Chinese imports forces companies on both sides of the Pacific to abruptly cease business.

Gene Seroka, the executive director for the Port of Los Angeles, told CNBC Tuesday that shipments from China comprise 45% of the port’s business.

Based on the volume of loadings in Asia, the port will see more than 35% fewer un-loadings starting next week compared to the same time last year.

“It’s a precipitous drop in volume, with a number of major American retailers stopping all shipments from China based on the tariffs,” said Seroka.

“Realistically speaking, until some accord or framework can be reached with China, the volume coming out of there, save a couple different commodities, will be very light at best,” he added.

Seroka estimated that American retailers have about five to seven weeks of full inventories left, after which “choices will lessen.”

American retailers are scrambling to source manufacturing capacity elsewhere, said Seroka, but the sheer volume of China’s production is difficult to shift on a compressed timeframe.

“Major American retailers put their orders into factories in Asia three or four months before a vessel even sails our way, which is an additional two-week transit time,” he noted. “So simply shifting from your manufacturer in China over to Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, that quickly normally doesn’t happen.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dodged clumsily when asked during Tuesday’s White House press briefing if the United States and China have been negotiating.

While Trump claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping had called him personally, the Chinese firmly denied the report.

“At present, there are absolutely no negotiations on the economy and trade between China and the U.S.,” Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yadong said last week.

In addition to negatively impacting American consumers, other pieces of the supply chain will also take a hit, Seroka predicted, with truckers and the transit industry also poised to suffer.

“Nobody wins,” he said.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), a union representing dock workers on the West Coast of the United States, also condemned the tariffs as “nothing more than a direct attack on the working class.”

“This haphazard and destructive tariff plan is a sad excuse for a ‘fair trade’ policy,” the union said in a statement. “We demand fair trade policies that put working class Americans first, protect jobs, and reduce taxes on the American people, not trade policies dictated by a president’s whims.”