Hong Kong’s freight forwarding industry is facing significant challenges as the U.S.-China trade war continues to take a toll on global trade. Reports indicate that 41% of container capacity from Hong Kong to North America’s west coast will be canceled for the week starting May 12, exacerbating the economic pressures on the city’s vital shipping sector. Hong Kong has long been a major global shipping hub, serving as a critical point for re-exporting goods, but the ongoing trade conflict between the U.S. and China is putting that role at risk. Freight booking platform Freightos’ executive vice-president Joyce Tai highlighted that the impact on Hong Kong’s economy would likely be far more severe than on the mainland, given the city’s pass-through function in global supply chains.
The escalating tariffs between Washington and Beijing have created a volatile environment for businesses that rely on international trade. With both sides unwilling to back down, the trade war has wreaked havoc on global markets, disrupting supply chains and impacting the cost and availability of goods. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs of up to 145% on a range of Chinese products led to retaliatory measures from China, which imposed its own tariffs of 125% on U.S. goods. These steep increases have made trade between the two largest economies in the world increasingly untenable, as tariffs above 35% can wipe out profit margins for Chinese exporters and make U.S. products prohibitively expensive in China.
Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos, noted that carriers have already begun canceling a large number of sailings from China to North America in the coming weeks. In fact, a report from Sea-Intelligence, a supply chain research firm, revealed that 32% of sailings would be canceled in the next two weeks alone, indicating the scale of disruption that the trade war is causing. For Hong Kong, this disruption is not just an inconvenience—it threatens to destabilize a key part of its economy that has long depended on its strategic role in international trade. As the trade war intensifies, the full extent of the economic impact on the city remains to be seen.
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