This post was originally published on The Economic Times
US container imports ended 2025 in a four-month skid that’s likely to lengthen this year as trade shifts to other economies to avoid President Donald Trump’s tariffs, according to a shipping industry analyst’s tally of the country’s top 10 ports.
Inbound volumes in December dropped 6.4% from a year earlier to 1.9 million 20-foot container units, after a 5.7% slide the previous month, according to John McCown, who publishes a monthly report that captures flows through America’s biggest gateways for seaborne cargo.
“The downward turn in 2025 was due solely to tariffs,” McCown wrote. “Unfortunately there is nothing at present that suggests it will be short-lived.”
The result is an upheaval in international commerce that ING Groep NV economists this week called “a global recalibration and the start of a new era.” The US, previously
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