THE pullback in trade between the US and China as a result of President Trump's steep tariffs on Chinese goods and fears of a recession are starting to show up in major ports data, with a steep drop in container vessel traffic headed to Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to CNBC.

For the week ending May 3, the number of freight vessels leaving China and headed to the Southern California ports, the main US ports receiving Chinese freight and other Asian trade, is down 29 per cent week over week, according to Port Optimizer, a tracking system for ships.

Year over year, the data shows a 44 per cent drop in vessels scheduled to arrive the week of May 4-May 10.

This data is updated on a daily basis based on the vessel manifests declaring the port destination. These vessels are either scheduled to leave Asia or are already on the water and headed to these ports.

The fallout from the ocean freight slowdown is beginning to hit ground transport linked to ports.

"We are at a tipping point on the West Coast," said Ken Adamo, chief of analytics at DAT Freight & Analytics. "Looking at how many truck loads are available versus trucks, we've seen a precipitous drop, over 700,000 loads have evaporated nationally in the past week compared to two weeks prior," he said.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently told a group of investors the trade war with China was unsustainable, and that a de-escalation could be coming in the "very near future", a person in the room told CNBC.

The vessel drop coincides with a rise in cancelled sailings from ocean carriers on Pacific routes that include ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Seattle, according to an alert from Worldwide Logistics informing clients of blank sailings.

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