Port of Los Angeles executive director Gene Seroka issued a new dire warning for CNN's Erin Burnett, saying he's already seeing the first signs of an economic crisis to come.
"When we're trying to figure out what's really going on here — I know you've seen a significant drop in ships at your port," said Burnett. "What are you seeing?"
"Your timing is so important," said Seroka, who has been sounding the alarm about President Donald Trump's tariffs and the drop in shipping volume for months. "We've hit fresh lows here at the Port of Los Angeles. Over the last week, we've averaged five ships per day in port. This time of year, it should be about 10 to 12. And subsequently, job orders for dockworkers are down 50 percent over the last two weeks."
"So, that's employment," said Burnett. "That's cold, hard jobs you're talking about. But just to be clear, you're talking about a drop of more than 50 percent in the amount of in what's coming into your port ... that we are now getting half as much as you usually get. Is stuff like, what? What are the general things that are usually on those container ships?"
"Generally, Erin, furniture, footwear, toys, and clothing," said Seroka. "Seasonally, we've blown right past summer fashion. Now our eyes are set on back to school, and that product should be here on the docks right now. Then Halloween to follow. As you and I have talked about before, May, that we just closed out, is usually the time where orders go into factories in Asia for the all-important year-end holiday seasons. I'm not seeing that happen right now."
"So is it fair to say — I mean, where are we in this process, you know, when the the tariffs on China were 145 percent and then Trump cut them to 30 percent and, you know, things have been all over the map, but any kind of reprieve that some would have expected we're going to get, that we would have gotten from that, you're saying you haven't seen it?" said Burnett. "So are we at a point where we're not far away from there being shortages of certain things or prices going up sharply for what is here?"
"We're cutting it close," said Seroka. "And realistically, what we'll probably see are fewer selections on store shelves and online buying platforms and likely higher prices. And you're exactly right that with this flow of cargo now, we're coming up really close on some very key arrival dates that aren't happening. And as a leading indicator to the U.S. economy, we see this activity three months before the ground truth happens here on the shores. And it's slow."
"And so you're saying that in three months, we're going to — we're going to see it," said Burnett. "So you're going to see it at back-to-school prices, you're going to see it on shelves, you're going to see shortages."
"That's right," said Seroka. "The slowdown of cargo ships, Erin, will hit the East and Gulf Coast in several weeks' time due to the longer transits they have. So this story is not complete yet."
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