Shipping volume remains light at the Port of LA, days after the U.S. and China paused steep tariffs for 90 days.
In an interview with Here & Now’s Asma Khalid, Gene Seroka, the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said companies are still figuring out how to move forward amid an uncertain trade climate.
“A lot of folks are, one, doing the math and the financial analysis of what the new tariff may look like for their company,” Seroka said. “Second, what is going to be the need of the consumer? We still may see lighter inventories. Then lastly, they’re going to hedge. What kind of a bet am I making at this tariff rate at the end of 90 days? Could it be lower or higher?”
3 questions with Gene Seroka
What have you been seeing since the truce was announced?
“Nothing just yet. What we saw last week was a drop of more than 30% in the cargo volume coming in. For the month of May, we’re still expecting about 20% of all scheduled ships to remain canceled. From what we’re hearing, and we have 125,000 different companies that import through the port of Los Angeles annually, but some are telling me that 90 days is not a long runway in this business, although there is some manufacturing of products that’s been dormant now for a while, we can pick up some of that cargo and start to bring it in. But 30% on tariffs is simply an average of averages. Depending on what commodity you’re bringing in, it could be higher, it could be cumulative based on other tariff increases in the recent past.”
Is this as dire a situation as predicted?
“This week is again extremely light and the forward two weeks will run light as well. Now we’ll see how quickly these ships can get back into rotation because it may take as much as two weeks to have the liner shipping vessels prepositioned in locations like Qingdao, Shanghai, Jiangmen, and Yantian in South China. So there’s much work to do now.”
What comes next?
“This is where it’s going to get interesting. From where I sit right now, it’s the small to medium-sized importer that I’m concerned most with. If they’re going to buy now at elevated levels, they’ll have difficulty passing that cost on to the consumer because they’re competing with the big guys. The neighborhood hardware store tries to sell a hammer. If their prices are higher than the bigger companies, they’re not going to be selling many of their tools. So that’s a piece that we have to watch now too. And at these elevated prices, we know from many in the retail community and even parts suppliers for American factories, they’re doing their level best to pass on those costs to their customers. What impact is that going to have to the American consumer’s buying pattern and downline inflation? All of these questions remain unanswerable at this point in time.”
____
Thomas Danielian produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Micaela Rodriguez. Michael Scotto adapted it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
Copyright 2025 WBUR
