The container trade from Asia to West Coast North America is struggling to ward off the effects of the trade war.

It has been a tough year so far for carriers in the Asia-West Coast North America container trade. The unpredictable trade war between the US and China that last year provided a welcome boost to the eastbound market has this year had the reverse effect. Last year’s annual growth rate of 5.7% was artificially stimulated by the dispute and was always likely to regress, but the extent to which growth has contracted has forced lines to recalibrate their products.

After eight months, loaded traffic from Asia to WCNA (covering the US, Canada and Mexico) had shrunk by nearly 3%. The slack was at least picked up by the smaller Asia to East Coast North America route, which increased by almost 6% to produce a flat total net result for the year-to-date period.

More recent US-only data for September from PIERS showed a continuation of that trend with shipments from Asia to WCNA falling by 5.8%, versus a 6.9% rise to other coasts.