THE alarm has been raised by Fitch Ratings that proposed tariffs by US
President Donald Trump's administration will negatively impact US
ports that handle large volumes of steel and aluminium. However, it
says the reverberations will take years to materialise.

Steel and aluminium are important cargoes at US ports on the Gulf,
east and west coasts and the Great Lakes. Top steel gateways include
Houston, Mobile, New Orleans, Delaware River terminals, Brownsville in
Texas, and several ports in the Pacific northwest and Great Lakes,
reported IHS Media.

Alabama's port of Mobile handles five million tonnes of steel annually
and the port of Houston handled 3.7 million tonnes of steel in 2017.
At the port of New Orleans, steel accounts for one-third of the
general cargo volume.

Most steel and aluminium shipments move as breakbulk cargo, but US
ports handled 282,995 TEU of containerised steel and aluminium from
all countries last year, PIERS data shows.

The ratings agency said a trade row between the US and China combined
with higher interest rates will not likely hurt growth for major
transportation segments for freight and passenger.

Fitch's statement came as the industry is adopting a wait and see
attitude to the impact of China's move to raise import duties on a
US$3 billion list of US pork, apples and other items in retaliation to
the US tariff hike on steel and aluminium. China's tariff hike would
affect 85,000 TEU of US containerised exports, according to PIERS.

Ports with the largest shares of China-bound exports in 2017 covered
by the tariffs were Los Angeles with 13,424 TEU last year; Oakland,
19,999 TEU; Long Beach, 10,798 TEU; and New York, 9,053 TEU.

Commodities for which China threatened retaliatory tariffs made up 3.1
per cent of the 2.8 million TEU in total US containerised exports to
China in 2017. Aluminium scrap was the highest volume of those
commodities, with 48,192 TEU last year. Pork and pork products were
second at 18,644 TEU, followed by fruits and nuts at 15,887 TEU.