There was an “elephant in the room” Thursday during Port of Virginia CEO Stephen Edwards’ annual State of the Port speech: Uncertainty.
Speaking to hundreds of leaders from various levels of the shipping industry at the Marriott Virginia ӽ紫ý hotel at the Oceanfront, Edwards made the case that the Port of Virginia has the infrastructure and position within global trade to weather the upheaval caused by the Trump administration’s tariff policies.
He pointed to a chart showing that 19% of trade at the Port of Virginia is with China, while other East Coast ports such as Savannah (31%), Charleston (25%), New York and New Jersey (25%), and Baltimore (21%) are more reliant on China. Meanwhile, the top four ports that rely on China are on the West Coast.
The trade war between the United States and China has escalated in recent weeks with tariffs on Chinese goods reaching 145% and retaliatory tariffs of 125% on American goods. Experts say these will increase prices for consumers and reduce demand, leading to slowdowns in global trade — though it’s unclear how severe it will be at this stage.
As Edwards was speaking, President Donald Trump was conducting a news conference at the White House. In response to a question, he said a cargo slowdown “means we lose less money.”
“When you say it slowed down — that’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” Trump said.
Edwards said the port is “somewhat fortunate” to have a more diverse set of trading partners.
“Uncertainty is the one thing that every port, shipper, importer and exporter is wrestling with right now,” Edwards said in his address. “This is of course the world we’re operating in, a very precarious global trade environment shaped by geopolitics that I can’t control, that we can’t control, and when things are changing quickly, the result is exactly what unsettles business the most: unpredictability.”
The European Union accounts for 26% of all imports and exports, followed by China and Hong Kong at 19%, India at 10%, Vietnam at 8% and various others that make up the remaining 37%, according to port data.
Speaking to the media after his address, Edwards said there will be less cargo on ships coming into the port from China starting this month, but “it won’t be the steep drop off that you see on the West Coast.” Still, he said, nobody knows when that drop off will be resolved.
He said the picture of trade at the port will become more clear as the U.S. reaches trade agreements with other countries. One of those, with the United Kingdom, was announced Thursday morning, to which Edwards replied, “the fact we now have certainty with a trading partner is good for everybody.”
Edwards touted a series of metrics to demonstrate the merits of the port, chiefly that CNBC named Virginia the best state in the country for business in 2024. He noted that since 2020 Virginia has seen a 25% growth in containers moving through its port, more than any other U.S. port, has seen a 53% increase in operating revenues, and has reduced lost workdays as a result of safety issues by 43%.
Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, gavin.stone@virginiamedia.com
