Feature: U.S. tariffs disrupt German ports, global supply chains

The Star

6 hours ago

HAMBURG, Germany, June 20 (Xinhua) -- At a checkpoint in Germany's Hamburg industrial zone in early June, a long line of trucks crawled forward slowly, inching towards a bustling logistics hub.
Among the waiting drivers, Horm Wulff jumped down from his cab and slammed the door shut, clearly irritated. Standing beside his truck, he tilted his head to glance at the snaking line ahead and sighed. Rolling his shoulders to ease the tension, he muttered under his breath, "If this line doesn't start moving soon, I'll be late again."
Wulff has been in the freight industry for over 20 years, but he has grown increasingly anxious in recent months. "My colleagues and I are increasingly worried that U.S. tariffs will cause major backlogs at the ports, with ships unable to unload on time. That would disrupt my working hours and delay the entire logistics chain that follows," he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his so-called global reciprocal tariffs on April 2, followed by a temporary 90-day pause.
Tariffs are a major source of uncertainty for the logistics industry and What was even more worrying was that no clear solution was in sight, Wulff said. "Assuming that we have got a done deal of reciprocal tariffs today, there will still be more tariffs in the pipeline tomorrow," he added.
German truck drivers have been forced to spend more time in congested lines as Hamburg and Bremen, the country's two major seaports, have been crowded with ships waiting for berth.
From late March till mid-May, the time lost for berth increased by 49 percent at Hamburg port and 77 percent at Bremen port, showed a report published by Drewry, a maritime consultancy in London. Meanwhile, Europe's largest port Rotterdam and the UK's Felixstowe have also reported longer waits.
Thorsten Dornia, general manager of Brelog Freight Forwarding and president of the Bremen Freight Forwarders' Association, attributes much of the congestion to the ongoing restructuring of global shipping alliances.
However, the U.S. trade policy has sparked an explosive increase of freights as U.S. importers rush to ship their goods into the United States before the pause expires. "These erratic U.S. policies are placing considerable strain on port infrastructure," Dornia said.
"Port delays are stretching transit time, disrupting inventory planning, and forcing shippers to carry additional stock," the Drewry report stated.
The bottlenecks at European ports are taking a toll on companies. Dornia pointed out that increased container dwell times, rerouting of shipments, and restricted delivery windows are leading to substantial additional costs for freight forwarders.
The wider impact of U.S. trade policies is already being felt across the international logistics industry. Peter Sand, chief analyst at freight analytics firm Xeneta, warned that U.S. tariff policy is pushing global trade into uncertain territory. "You can't make critical decisions about your supply chain when the rules of the game keep changing," Sand said.
"The trade conflict is a wake-up call for our economy," said Peter Klimek, a complexity researcher and director of the Supply Chain Intelligence Institute Austria. "It clearly illustrates how swiftly political decisions can lead to very real bottlenecks -- both at ports and across supply chains."
Hans-Joachim Schramm, senior lecturer at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, noted that U.S. tariff policies have significantly driven up transportation costs, particularly for goods shipped in smaller volumes. "These additional costs are inevitably passed down the supply chain," he said, "meaning that American consumers ultimately bear the burden of their own country's tariffs."