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Multiple cargo ships are traveling at high speeds towards the United States; in order to avoid tariffs, some ships have changed their port of destination from the Gulf of Mexico to Hawaii | maritime export logistics
Jul 24,2025
As the date of the US imposing a high 50 percent tariff on copper imports approaches, more and more freighters are sailing to US ports at full speed to complete customs clearance procedures before the tariffs officially take effect to avoid the high tariffs.
According to the latest report from Bloomberg, since US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on copper, the global copper market has experienced a dramatic fluctuation and arbitrage trading has prevailed. Now that the tariffs are imminent, traders are making a final push.
At least four cargo ships carrying copper are speeding up to US ports in an effort to complete customs clearance procedures before the tariffs officially take effect on August 1, the data showed.
A freighter named "Kiating" (IMO 9893802) departed from the Port of Townsville, Australia, on July 16 carrying 8,000 tons of refined copper and was expected to arrive in Hawaii on July 30, according to product data firm KPler. Although the owner of the copper could not be identified, Kpler noted that recent shipments from the port to the US had come from Glencore's Mount Isa Mines mine.
It is worth noting that the "Kiating" was originally scheduled to call at the port of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico, but it was diverted to Hawaii after Trump announced the tariff policy, which shortened the journey by nearly 20 days. However, arriving at port as early as possible does not mean that there is no foolproof, and ships still need to complete the customs clearance process in a very short period of time.
Photo Ben Ayre, chief dry bulk segregator at Kpler, noted that Hawaii is not a place for conventional metal imports and that the efficiency of customs clearance there is unclear. Meanwhile, three other ships full of Chilean copper are heading from Latin America to the United States. The ships are just one of the last freight bets to try to complete customs clearance before the tariffs take effect.
Take a bulk carrier carrying 15,000 tons of copper as an example, if the success of tax-free customs clearance, the maximum can save more than 70 million U.S. dollars in customs costs. It typically takes 10 to 15 days to sail from northern Chile to the southern United States. In order to improve the likelihood of completion of customs clearance by the deadline, shipowners generally choose to complete the entire shipment at the first port of landing, paying extra fees to prioritize the queues, reducing the wait time that could have taken days to hours.
This is not the first time a merchant ship has run after Trump's tariffs. In June this year, by the United States ban on export of ethane to China policy, the United States to China's ethane exports to the full suspension, export volume from the average daily drop of 257 thousand barrels in May. In mid-June, at least eight ethane ships were stranded along the Gulf of Mexico coast in the United States, while another vessel that plies the United States and China was diverted to India. Then, after the U.S. government announced on July 2 that it would lift restrictions on exports of ethane to China, the vessels sailed to Chinese ports at high speed after a long stay.
The U.S. policy of imposing steep tariffs on imported copper is about to take effect, and traders around the world are gearing up to try to avoid huge tariff costs at the last minute. This phenomenon not only reflects the profound impact of trade policies on global markets, but also highlights traders' coping strategies in the face of policy uncertainty. In the context of global economic integration, the impact of trade policy changes on global supply chain and market dynamics can not be underestimated.
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