Competitive Edge
April 16th, 2025
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Questions about Tariffs?
Feeling unsure about how tariffs might affect your goods? Whether you’re exploring exemption options or just need a clearer picture, we’re here to help. Send us an email at support@interlogusa.com
Market Update
Tariffs:
As we mentioned in last week’s edition of Competitive Edge, President Trump temporarily paused his reciprocal tariffs for 90 days on most countries. Those countries (except China) will continue to have a baseline 10% reciprocal tariff, but not the additional increases that were originally implemented.
Now, when it comes to the reciprocal tariffs on China, President Trump did raise the reciprocal tariff on China to 125%, due to them continuing to add reciprocal tariffs of their own. However, late last Friday the U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a notice that lists a variety of products that would be exempt from the reciprocal tariffs (largely electronics). The new exemptions are retroactively effective April 5th, and shippers may be eligible to request and receive a refund for duties paid on newly-exempted products, according to the U.S. CBP notice.
As of late Tuesday, April 15th, the White House released their fact sheet that said imports from China could be subject to tariffs totaling up to 245%. In that it states, “this includes a 125% reciprocal tariff, a 20% tariff to address the fentanyl crisis and Section 301 tariffs on specific goods, between 7.5% and 100%.”
Other tariffs in effect include the 25% on steel/aluminum (as of March 12th). As well as the 25% on automobile/auto parts (as of April 2nd). There are some exemptions, including those compliant under the USMCA.
If you are curious about what exemptions look like or want additional information regarding tariffs, you can contact us at: support@interlogusa.com
March Global Port Volumes:
— As we recap the month of March, lets take a look at how port volumes around the globe fared. According to Descartes March Global Shipping Report, U.S. container imports increased 6.3% in March compared to the month prior (February). They also saw an 11% year-over-year increase.
An interesting note, when it comes to U.S. imports from China, March saw a 12.6% decline from February but a 9.4% year-over-year increase, per Descartes. The decline month-over-month is not to surprising considering tariffs started to be imposed in early February and then again in March.
When it comes to what U.S. coast ports received the majority share of imports in March, that crown would be placed on the U.S. East Coast. Specifically, they attributed to 43% of total U.S. imports (a 2.4% increase from February), while the U.S. West Coast dipped to 39.4% (a 3.4% decline from February), per Descartes data.
Early Days, but Gemini Cooperation Shows Promising Reliability
Among the primary goals of the Gemini Cooperation, they are sustaining a 90% rate of schedule reliability, like they publicly praised they would do when they formed the alliance. So far, in the limited time that the Gemini Cooperation has been operating, they are on the right track. A complete evaluation of their schedule reliability will not be possible until July, the Journal of Commerce reports, as this is when the full rotation of services will be complete.
The Gemini Cooperation will have a total of twenty-eight shuttle services, once fully operational. According to data from Sea-Intelligence, fifteen of those have been launched since the alliance was launched in February. Additional data from Sea-Intelligence stated ten of those are deployed in Asia, two in Europe, and three in the Indian Subcontinent/Middle East. Schedule reliability for those shuttle services was at 98.4% in February, per Sea-Intelligence.
A few caveats though, a key one being that the Gemini Cooperation has not yet been fully rolled out – that will come in July – and only a small set of their vessels have been released in the new network. The next few months will be more challenging as more vessels will be integrated in. Additionally, as Sea-Intelligence reports, of the mainliner services that the Gemini Cooperation offers, none of them completed full origin-to-destination connects, as the transit time exceeds one month.
Did You Know? With Johnny Cargo!
What do you think the answer is?
InterlogUSA’s chat bot Johnny Cargo sure is an inquisitive soul. However, he doesn’t just ask about industry-related trivia. Johnny also loves to ask supply chain professionals about their shipping arrangements and which areas can benefit from InterlogUSA’s assistance as an end-to-end freight forwarder.
He works around the clock and is always available for conversation.
Avoid Damage Through Proper Palletization
At some point during the shipping process cargo shifts around and inevitably shows up at your company door in “heavily used” condition.
There’s a very important factor to consider when palletizing cargo and that is knowing the type of pallet your goods are being loaded onto.
If you would like to have a conversation about this further, contact us via email at: support@interlogusa.com or reply off this email and we’d be happy to talk further!
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