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USTR stupidity. [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-05-31
It seems US lawmakers just don’t understand anything to do with shipping. But they do understand TACO’s tantrums. So this appalling bill drafted by incompetents.
Image courtesy of “What’s Going On With Shipping?”
First, they don’t understand what ‘tonnage’ even means. There are four commonly used measures and apparently it’s not properly defined. This is before we even consider the differences between long ton, short ton, metric ton, tonne, etc!
Basically though, if you’re already angry about the price hikes already appearing due to tariffs, you’re going to get even angrier when I tell you:
On Chinese owners operating Chinese ships the fee will be $50 per net ton or $120 per container.
Take steel as an example. FOB price is approx. $650 / short ton (see what I mean?) for hot rolled coils. TACO put a 50% tariff on it, so $975. The new port fee will add another $50 giving a total of $1,025/short ton.
Now let’s look at the price of domestic steel: As of late April 2025, the domestic factory gate price for hot-rolled coil (HRC) in the U.S. ranges from approximately $904 to $940 per short ton, depending on the mill and region. So you can see that the tariffs and port fees are set to eliminate steel imports.
ocean bookings
But the US typically imports 20–30% of its steel annually, depending on the year and market conditions — around 20–25 million tons.
It seems likely that the cost of domestic steel will creep up to equal the import price.
The most disturbing graphic about all this was released by Vizion:
These charges are going to further increase the cost of consumer goods and industrial materials, driving up inflation and making US industries less competitive — but some will suffer worse than others (those using Chinese vessels).
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