Shipping Wars

As the metal gangway is lowered, the crew gets to work securing the ship to the dockside – their bright orange jumpsuits dwarfed by the vast pink container ship behind them.

Once the ONE Modern vessel is safely attached, three crane drivers begin a race against the clock to unload and reload more than 700 containers from the Port of Hong Kong, in less than 10 hours.

For the myriad companies across the globe in the same boat, there’s a bigger race at stake: the massive operation to get goods out of China and into the US before the pause on higher tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump expires on August 12.

“The indices for unpredictability and chaos are actually at an all-time high,” Roberto Giannetta, chairman of the Hong Kong Liner Shipping Association, told CNN. “This instability is creating a lot of chaos.”