SIMIC

"As consumers move from purchasing stuff to buying services, importers continue to work on balancing order flow with sales expectations," said Alan Baer, CEO of OL USA.

"Some industries are forecasting purchase order reductions of 20 to 30 percent, while others see no interruptions in their order flow. Overall, the risk appears to be to the downside. The decrease appears tied to economic uncertainty and not the migration of operations out of China."

It is important to note even with this decrease in orders, the number of orders is still above pre-pandemic levels.

This order decrease will have no impact on the current container volumes leaving China bound for the United States, reports CNBC.

"Orders are now fairly normal after the lock-down," said Goetz Alebrand, head of Ocean Freight Americas, DHL Global Forwarding.

"Some raw materials are missing for production and we also see more caution among some groups of importers in placing bookings," he added.

Mr Alebrand said there were some manufacturing shifts away from China that started under the Trump administration, with Vietnam and India among the countries that are benefiting from a growing share, but China remains the dominant sourcing locale for many products imported to the US.

One question that DHL Global Forwarding Americas is watching closely is whether Latin American countries will benefit from the shift.