US trade strategy to hit 2025 global container volumes

Expectations of a prolonged decline of global container demand has increased as volumes stalled as the impact of stop-go tariffs and the continued conflict in the Middle East are felt.

John McCown, consultant at Blue Alpha Capital, believes that volumes will contract in 2025 from its peak last year which saw growth of 15.2%, reaching levels above the pandemic peak. Declines in global container volumes have only happened twice before, in the 2008 currency crisis and during Covid, he said.