At the end of trading on Thursday November 11, 2016 the Dow Jones US Marine Transportation Index showed a 6.54% rise since the first bell after the president elect, Donald Trump, had been announced, reported gCaptain.
Dryships are up 133%, alongside Globus Maritime Limited (up 42%),Genco Shipping & Trading (up 19.62%) and Nordic American Tankers (up 15%); there are many other shipping and maritime companies also seeing double digit increases.
This calls into question the prediction by many, including Drewry, that the shipping industry will suffer after the election, especially considering Donald Trump’s isolationist attitude when it comes to trade, including scrapping the trans-pacific partnership.
However stock markets are volatile, and what is rising today may fall tomorrow; things may certainly change if the new president acts upon his promise to impose tariffs on imports, which is turn would cause the US to have export tariffs imposed on them.
The shipping industry already struggles under massive oversupply and the drop in importing and exporting from major global actors like China, and a separation of the US from the global trade market could prove fatal for many companies, which could follow the same fate as Hanjin Shipping.
