The Slowdown at Ports Is a Warning of Rough Economic Seas Ahead

The $10 billion container shipping industry, the one that moves boxes full of everything and anything around global seas, has this phenomenon called “blank sailings.” To understand the term of art, think of the world-spanning ocean-bound trade economy like a bus system, where several buses—or ships—are making stops along a set route. If the people running the bus system—or the shipping company—realize there’s not enough passenger demand for their bus to run the route in the middle of the day, they’ll cancel one of those circuits. Same with shipping companies: If they realize there aren’t enough bookings to justify a container ship running its standard route, the company will “blank” the sailing, combining the goods that were supposed to be on that ship with those traveling later in the week. This is normal shipping stuff. But not this month. As the effects of President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on foreign goods—and the trade war they’ve ignited—set in, many shippers who usually send ... Read full article.