The slowdown in the ports is a warning from the upcoming harsh economic seas

10 billion dollars The container shipping industry, which transports the boxes full of everything and anything around the global seas, has this phenomenon called “empty sailing”.

To understand the term art, consider the trade economy that extends to the global oceans such as the bus system, where several buses-or ships-stop the length of a specific road. If the people who run the bus system – or the shipping company – are investigating it, there is not enough passengers on their bus to operate the road in the middle of the day, they will cancel one of these circles. The same thing with shipping companies: If they realize that there are not enough reservations to justify a container ship that runs its standard way, the company “will implement” sailing and combines the goods that were supposed to be on that ship with those who travel later in the week.

These are the regular things to ship. But not this month. As the effects of President Donald Trump A new tariff for foreign goods-and The trade war that I lit– Make many trucks who usually send goods across the Pacific Ocean have stopped their shipments or canceled their shipments. Data from the marine supply chain research company It shows that empty sailing The western coast of the United States increased by 13 percent this week, and is scheduled to jump to 28 percent in the following week. Los Angeles port, the largest in the country, expects, 17 empty sailing in MayAnd, which means that the port will lose 224,000 “twenty -feet -feet -feet unit”, the standard scale used to measure content in one container. In total, and The port’s data appearsThe import volumes will decrease by 31 percent next week compared to the same week last year.

This means that many things related to the United States are no longer coming – and many of these are particularly things From China. This is the unusual part. “This is very severe,” says Simon Hene, the first director of container research in Draueri, a marine research and consultant. “It has never been unprecedented in the history of the container.” He says that the empty sailing is “an early canary in the charcoal mine. When transport companies see the services, they tell you that there is not enough demand (for goods), or that shipping rates decrease very quickly.”

What does that mean for consumers? Currently, the United States government said it is negotiating the tariff levels with many countries, including China, so that the container shipping image can change rapidly with the signing or intermittent of deals. But at this point, some deficiency is baked. Experts say Low -cost retail commodities, such as gamesIt is very likely that it will become more expensive in the United States, as less than ships make them to the port and scarcity rises.

“Perhaps children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and they may cost dolls a few dollars more than that.”

But after a few weeks, tea leaves cannot in the global container shipping industry and its “empty sailing” table cannot predict what will happen for global trade. Jean -Rodrig, a marine business administration professor who studies ports at the University of Texas A &M Galliviston, says some empty sailing that is currently being caused by economic uncertainty, said Jean -Paul Rodrig, Professor of Marine Business Administration who studies ports at the University of Texas A &M Galliviston. He says that companies and countries “are late until they know what the new rules of the game are. We create the painting, and we wrap the dice.” “The rules have changed.” This means that if deals are made, these goods can return.