Cargo ship arrivals to US ports plunge as tariffs hit economy

Donald Trump's increasingly erratic trade war has triggered a slump in shipments to the US's most important ports, amid the growing risk of a recession in the world's largest economy.

- Richard Partington

In the latest sign of the president's tariff policies rattling the economy, the number of vessels scheduled to arrive at the Port of Los Angeles next week is down by almost a third on the same period a year earlier.

According to data compiled from ocean carrier manifest records by Port Optimizer, the number of arrivals this week is on track to be down by about 11% on the same week last year. Separate figures reported by the Financial Times from Vizion, a data provider, show container bookings from China to the US fell 45% by mid-April compared with a year earlier.