Supply Chain Research

Maersk’s CEO, Soren Skou, has stated the firm only expects U.S. imports to “drop a little bit in the coming quarters” as a result of the U.S.-China trade war. The timing of the slowdown will be a function of negotiations between China and the U.S. as well as the seasonality effect of the earlier lunar new year. An optical slowdown is inevitable later in the year as 2018’s pre-tariff shipping rush becomes the comparator for 4Q. Maersk’s U.S.-inbound shipments from China have kept pace with the national average with a 12.3% year over year increase in 4Q versus 13.9% for the industry. The e...