FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Monday is the start to the first full week of steep tariffs being applied to smaller e-commerce packages coming from China.
Port Miami Director Hydi Webb and Port Everglades Director Joseph Morris say of their diverse mix of cargo, the primary route is from Latin American and the Caribbean, a region on the lower end of the impacted tariffs right now.
“Thirteen percent of it is with China,” said Webb. “We can weather certain political issues depending on the route and the trade patterns that the cargo is coming from.”
“Less than 2% of our overall trade is direct with China,” said Morris. “As we see the dynamic change, whether it is week-to-week or day-to-day in how these tariffs are applied, we are saying indeed, right now, we are insulated, but not immune.”
That is why they are monitoring not just the Trump administration’s fluid trade policy, but how the response is.
“This is a serious conversation that is being monitored closely, how long it will take effect for is also unknown,” said Webb. “Upcoming, we have back-to-school, we have the holidays coming up, so we are tracking it really closely and monitoring it and hoping for the best.”
Consumer spending has a direct impact on the goods brought in.
“Eighty percent of our goods move through the port are sourced or end within 80 miles of the port, so we know we are indeed local,” said Morris.
When you get more things that need to be shipped, there is more cargo. There is less if consumers respond to potentially tariff-fueled higher prices, especially e-commerce, with scaling back. It is that demand volatility that in part makes forecasting when the impact could be felt, and how deep, difficult.
“So the impacts for us, we will really be watching to see how supply and demand and consumer behavior changes in the U.S. and therefore has an impact on the rest of global trade,” said Morris.
Added Webb: “We have not heard that any of our sailings are cancelled at this moment, which is good news. We do anticipate some slowdowns. How long that lasts for and when it starts remains to be seen.”
Also at stake are jobs. A drop in cargo impacts port workers, from longshoremen to truckers, and then that trickles down to the regional and local economy.
EAST COAST VS. WEST COAST PORT IMPACTS
“You had heard about the impacts at the West Coast ports,” said Webb. “Typically back here on the East Coast and Miami, we run about 4-6 weeks lagging behind them in any of those trade patterns. At Port Miami, we have a very diversified trade pattern where about 47% of trade is the north-south trade, so Latin America and the Caribbean, 30-33% of our trade is with Asia, about 13% of that is with China. Obviously the West Coast is highly dependent on Asia and China. We, when the ships come through that route to the United States, on the East Coast specifically, it takes a longer transit time, so we feel that later.”
PORT EVERGLADES TRADE SURPLUS
“We are a trade surplus,” said Morris. “There is a lot of talk with the tariffs being applied that it is related to trade imbalance, and we, by value of our goods, roughly 52% is on the export side and 48% of the value of goods is on the import side, so we are happy to report a trade surplus here at Port Everglades. The blue cranes that you see here on the left, these are our brand new Super Post-Panamax that have really boosted our efficiency and the efficiency of our tenants. These are capable of handling the largest ships in our trade network that support our other seven cranes that are undergoing some refurbishment right now to continue their life.”
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