Top Japanese shipping line fears US tariffs will slow cargo flows, president says

TOKYO, April 1 (Reuters) - Nippon Yusen (NYK) (9101.T), opens new tab, Japan's largest shipping line, is concerned that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs could push up the cost of automobiles and daily goods, denting consumer demand and slowing cargo flows, its president said.
"The tariffs are not directly borne by consumers, but the burden ultimately falls on them, which in turn reduces the actual flow of goods. That's our biggest concern," President Takaya Soga told Reuters in an interview on Monday.
Trump last week unveiled plans to impose a 25% tariff on automobile imports, a move expected to hit Japan's export-driven economy. He has also vowed to announce reciprocal tariffs targeting all trading partners on Wednesday.
"Tariffs could have a considerable impact on the economy," Soga said, adding that the extent of the impact on shipping and logistics companies will depend on actual cargo movements.
However, Soga sees potential benefits from the trade war. As seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, even if cargo volumes decline, tariff-related procedural delays could disrupt logistics, tighten ship demand and lift freight rates, he said.
And if China shifts to sourcing raw materials from outside the U.S., NYK could find business opportunities.
A rush for general consumer goods drove up cargo movement in December until just before the Chinese New Year in anticipation of U.S. tariffs, but there has been no major shift in material flows since they took effect, Soga said.
The United States is also planning to charge fees for docking at U.S. ports on any ship that is part of a fleet that includes Chinese- built or Chinese-flagged vessels and will push allies to do similar or face retaliation.
"The U.S. government will carefully examine the policy, including whether it will be implemented, so we cannot say now that we will stop ordering vessels from China," he said.
With ongoing geopolitical risks in the Middle East, Soga expects Red Sea avoidance to continue for a while. Disruption in the Red Sea due to attacks by Yemen's Houthi militants absorbed extra capacity last year, as many ships took a longer route around Southern Africa.
While container vessel congestion in the Panama Canal has largely been resolved, NYK is urging the Panama Canal Authority to reinstate Tier 1 priority for liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker traffic, Soga said.
Regarding the investment plans in vessels involved in offshore wind power projects, Soga said the company's plans in Japan may be delayed due to slower-than-expected market development, but overseas investments will proceed sooner.

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Israel-Iran live: 'Bullseye!!!' Trump claims Iran strikes caused 'monumental damage'

Donald Trump claims Iran's nuclear sites were "obliterated" by US strikes overnight on Saturday. The Iranian armed forces have threatened the US with a "decisive response". Follow the latest below and listen to The World podcast as you scroll.

Daily Mail​

32 minutes ago

• Daily Mail​

How Donald Trump fooled the world and outwitted Iran with bold misdirection before nuclear strikes

President Donald Trump 's attack on Iran 's nuclear sites caught the world - and its target - by surprise. However the strikes were carried out as a part of a bold plan to wrongfoot Iran, according to new reports. Trump was leaning towards pulling the trigger for several days when he told the press on Thursday that he was giving Iran a two-week deadline before he made a decision, CNN reported. He believed issuing the ultimatum would 'throw off the Iranians and conceal his plans', sources reportedly said. The statement was used to lull Iran into a false sense of security even though Trump had all but made up his mind to strike. Bombs rained down on Iran 's Natanz and Fordow nuclear facilities just two days later in a targeted US strike, sending shockwaves throughout the world. According to administration insiders, the 'two-week' ploy was just one part of a concerted effort to conceal the true conversations taking place in Trump's 'war room.' Separately, the Pentagon deployed several B-2 bombers to serve as decoys, flying west from their base in Missouri in the hopes that they would be picked up by flight trackers. Iranian intelligence would, if all went to plan, calculate the timing of any potential attack based on the flight path over the Pacific Ocean, coming from the west. In reality, seven other B-2 bombers actually departed Missouri, heading east. They refueled several times undetected and attacked three nuclear facilities from the opposite direction that Iran was expecting the attack from. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth boasted of the success of the mission, telling reporters on Sunday: 'Our B-2s went in and out and back without the world knowing at all.' Officials added it was the most B-2 bomber strikes carried out in history. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine said: 'A large B-2 strike package comprised of bombers launched from the continental United States as part of a plan to maintain tactical surprise. 'Part of the package proceeded to the west and into the Pacific as a decoy, a deception effort known only to an extremely small number of climbers and key leaders here in Washington.' Caine claimed no Iranian planes were deployed to intercept the bombers, and the U.S. planes used in the strike were not hit with any fire. Caine said the mission was named 'Operation Midnight Hammer' and was meant to degrade the country's nuclear programs. 'Iran's nuclear ambitions have been obliterated,' Hegseth added, noting the operation was an 'incredible and overwhelming success.' It did not target Iranian troops or Iranian people, the defense secretary stressed. But assurances that the operation was an overwhelming success have been questioned by local Iranian media after reports from Iranian lawmakers that the damage was 'quite superficial.' Iran is believed to have filled in tunnels at its underground Fordow enrichment facility before the strike in an effort to protect the sites from the strikes. Trump faced backlash for his faux two-week deadline at the time, facing mockery for seemingly backing out of making a decision after days of hinting at US involvement. He had already delivered a terrifying warning to Iranians to leave Tehran amid Israel's bombings, marking the first warning sign that he was planning to intervene. 'Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!' the U.S. president wrote in a Truth Social post, as he was attending the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Canada on Monday. But Trump has been known to give such two week deadlines in the past, including most recently to Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, which ultimately passed by with no action. He was referred to as 'TACO' online, an abbreviation for 'Trump always chickens out', while others praised him for taking the diplomacy route. But Trump didn't respond to either the criticism or praise for his decision. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the New York Times Trump 'successfully accomplished one of the most complex and historic military operations of all time.' She said 'many presidents have talked about this, but only President Trump had the guts to do it.' The surprise attack on Saturday utilized seven B-2 stealth bombers that dropped 14 30,000-pound 'bunker buster' bombs on Iran's primary nuclear facility. Over 125 U.S. aircraft participated in the mission, including bombers, fighters, and refueling tankers, Caine said. 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Israel targeted nuclear sites and military sites within Iran, while also killing many of Iran's top military commanders. At least 722 people, including 285 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2,500 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group. Iran has retaliated by firing more than 450 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. The strikes killed at least 24 people. Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but it is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich uranium up to 60 percent - a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90 percent. Israel is widely

The Guardian

37 minutes ago

• The Guardian

Monday briefing: Four ways Iran could retaliate to US bombing of nuclear sites

Good morning. After he ordered the attacks on Iranian nuclear sites that constituted the US's entry into Israel's war against Iran, Donald Trump insisted that he wanted peace 'quickly', and that the alternative would be 'tragedy for Iran' and 'far greater' attacks in future. His vice-president, JD Vance, said that the US was 'not at war with Iran' and that 'we do not want to protract this'. But in Tehran, with Trump now also talking of regime change, the conclusion appears to be that there is no choice but to respond. Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said that 'The Americans must receive a response to their aggression'. And foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said that the US strikes will have 'everlasting consequences'. While there is little doubt that Iran's military capacities have been severely degraded since Israel's attacks on 13 June, the country retains immediate options – and may now be more set on a path to nuclear weapons than it was before this began. So what might an Iranian reaction look like – and would it be calibrated to avoid escalation, or to punish Trump as aggressively as possible? For today's newsletter, I spoke to Mohammad Ali Shabani, an Iran expert and editor of about the scenarios that might unfold. Here are the headlines. Assisted dying | Health secretary Wes Streeting has voiced doubts over whether the NHS can afford to establish an assisted dying service, after MPs passed a bill to legalise the procedure last week. The bill now heads to the House of Lords, where there are expected to be continued battles over its progress. Health | Thousands of patients in England will be able to access weight-loss jabs via their GP from Monday for the first time. Family doctors will be allowed to prescribe Mounjaro to severely obese people living with a range of other health problems. Syria | A suicide bombing by Islamic State targeting a church in Damascus has killed 20 people and wounded 52, Syrian authorities have said. 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Senior military leaders have been killed, air defence systems have been crippled, key command centres have been destroyed, and now the US has dealt a devastating blow to Iran's nuclear programme. But it would be a mistake to think Iran's leadership is therefore bound to accept the 'unconditional surrender' Trump has demanded. 'They are pragmatic people,' Mohammad Ali Shabani said. 'They prefer to live to fight another day. But there is a question with Trump about whether, if you exact no cost, you increase the risk of further bombing. There will be a desire to show that Israel has not obliterated their retaliatory capacity, and to show a domestic audience that they are not defeated.' Here are some of the options that might be considered. The 'proportionate' response | Military action that aims to avoid escalation 'The feeling may be that they have to choose a kinetic response,' Shabani said. 'That's a fancy way of saying 'bomb something'.' In this analysis, considerations will include whether any Iranian lives were taken by the US attack – none have yet been reported – and the fact it was executed by submarines and bombers that did not depart from US bases in the region. 'It was a bloodless attack, and since we know that these sites have largely been evacuated, there may be a desire to do the same thing.' Options Shabani thinks may be on the table include an attack on US interests in Iraq – 'it's so close, it has limited air defences, and there is unlikely to be unmanageable blowback from the Iraqi government'. There could also be strikes on the headquarters of the US fifth fleet in Bahrain and US military installations in the tri-border area between Iraq, Jordan, and Syria. 'The Bahrain naval complex is a big symbol of US power, but it appears to have largely been evacuated, except of essential personnel,' Shabani said. 'And Bahrain has neither fully normalised relations with Iran nor explicitly condemned the American attack. So they may decide to say, you hit a symbol of our power, we hit a symbol of your power, and alert the US to get their remaining personnel out of there first.' That approach might reflect reporting of claims in Tehran that the US gave advanced notice of the attack and said it did not seek an all-out confrontation. Whatever the move ultimately is, Shabani said, he would expect it to be more severe than the action taken after Trump ordered the assassination of the senior Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in 2020. That involved the first direct ballistic missile strike on US interests since the second world war, against two bases in Iraq. 'That was in response to an attack that did not violate Iran's territory, because Soleimani was in Iraq,' Shabani said. 'Iran will see such a significant series of attacks on its soil this time as a step up the escalatory ladder. So they could decide to target several places at once.' It might also seek to link continuing attacks on Israel to the US's actions. Decisions on those measures will be taken by the Iranian supreme national security council, which is headed by the president and includes cabinet ministers, military leaders, and representatives of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 'It's important to emphasise that Iran is a state, with institutions and a bureaucracy,' Shabani said. 'This is not a personality cult. Khamenei is very keen to signal that those institutions are still functioning.' The diplomatic response | Inspectors expelled, no immediate return to talks Alongside any military action, 'Iran may well decide to end foreign inspections and downgrade the level of IAEA monitoring that they allow,' Shabani said. It is likely that in the end Iran and the United States will return to some form of talks. But having been so weakened, it appears improbable Iran will return to a solely diplomatic route without taking some kind of 'kinetic' action first. As Reza Salehi, a conservative political analyst in Tehran, told the New York Times: 'The big challenge that we face this week is that if we go to the negotiating table, the other side will have more and newer demands, such as our defense abilities, and that will make things complicated.' Meanwhile, the domestic optics of accepting the US and Israeli red lines – sending all uranium out of the country for enrichment – in the face of such a heavy military blow appear likely to be unacceptable to senior Iranian leaders. 'The notion that they would be willing to be seen as crawling to the negotiating table is not realistic,' Shabani said. 'They need to be able to save face first in order to make a deal.' The wildcard response | Deterrence through unpredictability 'Iran's actions have so far been a little bit predictable – rational,' Shabani said. 'But part of deterrence is your opponent not being able to calculate what you're going to do.' That might point to an asymmetric response that aims to cause significant economic damage to the west, he said. 'One of the extreme options would be to target maritime traffic in the strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea' – two major routes for western shipping and the transit of oil supplies. 'If you close the strait of Hormuz, that's 20% of the world's seaborne oil supplies off the market overnight. But it's problematic because it's also an artery for Iran, which hasn't stopped exporting oil. It's a last resort option, and I don't know if they're there yet.' Iran's parliament yesterday approved the closure of the Hormuz shipping channel, but the decision ultimately rests with the supreme national security council. (Here's a useful explainer on the shipping route's significance.) Some have also warned that Iran could once again turn to sponsoring terror attacks or hostage-taking. But, Shabani said, 'they have recently tended to prefer to act alone, and to act directly – to say, we're not hiding our responsibility. Doing that could even signal weakness, that they do not have other options at their disposal.' Cyber-attacks might be a more realistic option. But it is similarly hard to see Iran targeting US critical infrastructure – partly because doing so would be seen as escalatory, partly because the US's defences are robust. 'But I wouldn't remove it completely from the table,' Shabani said. 'If there are bloodless non-critical systems that they can get to – a bank rather than water supplies – that could be possible.' The nuclear option | Following the North Korean example If expelling IAEA inspectors would be a symbolic gesture of limited practical weight given the damage done to Iran's nuclear facilities, a much more significant long-term approach may easily follow: working to increase enrichment, and to actively pursue a nuclear weapon outside any international oversight. (Ironically, that is a decision that US intelligence agencies recently assessed that Iran had not yet taken.) 'We reported a senior source in Iran saying that 'most' of Iran's enriched uranium stockpile is intact,' Shabani said. 'That would not be surprising: they have already said they have moved parts of the stockpile to protect it.' Iran has also claimed it has another secret and secure enrichment site, though there has been no reporting yet of western intelligence assessments of the truth of that claim. 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The FT runs with 'Trump declares victory with massive air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities,' and the Mail, 'Fears UK will now face Iran terror backlash.' 'Starmer warns of 'escalation' risk as UK terror threat rises,' writes the Express, and finally the Telegraph with: 'Revenge would be Iran's worst mistake, warns US.' Why Trump bombed Iran The United States has joined Israel in its attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. Michael Safi hears from reporter Hugo Lowell and world affairs correspondent Andrew Roth on what happens now. A bit of good news to remind you that the world's not all bad After forgetting her younger sister's 40th birthday, Melanie rushed to send her flowers, only to learn that her sister had died before they arrived. Melanie received the devastating news just before boarding a flight to Brisbane. Overwhelmed with grief, she broke down while boarding the plane. A compassionate flight attendant noticed her distress, she tells Katie Cunningham in this edition of our Kindness of strangers column, and upon learning what had happened, simply offered quiet support: holding her hand, checking on her throughout the flight, and helping her disembark quickly upon landing. His calm presence and acts of kindness stood out as an extraordinary comfort in a moment of raw heartbreak. And finally, the Guardian's puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply