Supply Chain Research

U.S. inbound volumes of containers fell by 7.8% year over year in 4Q after a 10.6% drop in December. That’s been down in part to the demand-drag from the U.S.-China trade war as well as the timing effect of earlier stockpiling. Among the major container lines the worst performers were HMM and CMA-CGM with declines of 16.3% and 12.6% respectively in 4Q while Hapag-Lloyd did best with a slip of just 3.5%. Hapag-Lloyd’s CEO, Rolf Habben Jansen, has indicated that “trade conflicts can have an impact on trade routes” and that the firm will “have to live with these possible fluctuations”. Hapa...