News
The National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management (NILIM), a research institute under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), has recently unveiled a report that it had compiled to forecast impacts on seaborne shipping volumes that the trade conflicts caused by the U.S. Trump administration’s protectionist policies could have.
If the ongoing trade frictions are to escalate, according to the report, the U.S. and China will be affected severely, lowering the world’s GDP and slowing down global trade. From 2017, it added, container throughput will decrease by 2.3 to 5.1 million TEUs on the route to and from the U.S. and 2.5 to 4.4 million TEUs to and from China. As for bulk cargo, 46 to 136 million tons will be diminished on the former and 43 to 55 million tons on the latter. On the North America container trade (U.S.-Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan), the NILIM projected 18 to 36% of shipments will be lost.
