The diplomatic dispute brewing between Algeria and France has impacted a potential investment by the CMA CGM in the Algerian port sector. The French ship[ping company was reported to be negotiating a concession for the port of Oran through its subsidiary CMA Terminals, but the deal has been on hold as tensions rise between the two countries.

Early this week, the CEO of CMA CGM Rodolphe Saadé was scheduled to visit Algeria for a business trip. However, the visit was reportedly postponed as relations between Algeria and France further deteriorated this week. According to local media reports, Rodolphe Saadé was to be received by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to finalize a port investment deal, which has been under negotiations for nearly a year.

The diplomatic incident emerged as Algeria protested after one of its consular staff was arrested in France. The indictment of the official was over suspicion of involvement in the kidnapping of an Algerian government critic in Paris in April 2024. This has seen the two countries expel diplomats from both sides in a tit-for-tat move.

The diplomatic dispute also appears to have taken an economic dimension. The Algerian Economic Renewal Council (CREA), the country’s largest business organization, canceled its planned visit to France next month, where it was to hold a meeting with the French employers’ association (MEDEF). CREA accused French authorities of blocking investments in Algeria.

“The cancellation of the trip follows measures taken by French authorities, who strongly pressured a French maritime transport company to abandon its trip to Algeria to finalize an investment project,” said CREA. With the ongoing tension between Algeria and France, and Saadé’s visit on hold, the negotiations for the port concession are expected to be delayed.

CMA CGM is already present in nine Algerian ports including Algiers, Annaba, Béjaïa, Skikda, and Ghazaouet. The interest in Oran is because of the port’s strategic location in the Western Mediterranean and its proximity to Europe. CMA CGM is believed to be considering a feeder shipping line between Marseille and Oran, to be operated by its subsidiary, La Méridionale.

American importers are beginning to delay or cancel orders in China due to the White House's new 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods - and some U.S. firms may even abandon import cargo on the dock because they can't afford to pay the extra duties, though the White House has promised an exemption for goods already in transit.

Even before the latest hike, Chinese manufacturers faced a tariff of 20 percent from earlier White House actions. Many have already discounted their goods to the lowest profitable price in order to offset the effects. "It is a deal breaker," toy factory owner Chen Qingxin told the Wall Street Journal. "No room for doing business anymore, for both sides."

Given the effective doubling of their wholesale costs, American retailers are already beginning to cancel or defer orders. E-commerce giant Amazon began to revoke orders this week, according to Bloomberg, and has already canceled shipments of summer goods like air conditioners, beach chairs and scooters.

Exporters in China are also adapting to a new reality. "All factory orders are suspended. Any goods that have not been loaded will be cancelled and goods that are already at sea will be re-priced," one manufacturing executive told SCMP. "The loss on each container we ship is now greater than the profit we used to make on two containers." He added that his firm has heard from at least one U.S. client that the goods would be abandoned on the dock when they arrived because the tariffs make them too expensive to sell.

"The major trend we see is shippers looking to not accept their freight," supply chain consultant Joseph Esteves told CNBC. "A lot of these companies are levered financially. They don’t have the working capital requirements and they don’t have the cash. So they simply cannot just take on this [tariff] and hope to see what happens."

The steep tariff on China may force U.S. importers to diversify their supply chains to other alternatives, like Cambodia and Vietnam, already popular options for the "China plus one" diversified sourcing strategy. But there is little chance that more low-end consumer goods will end up being produced in America, some in the supply chain business say.

"They’re absolutely not going to go back to the United States," said Casey Barnett, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia, told CNBC. "I can’t imagine that Americans want to sit down and sew a pair of sweatpants for long hours of the day."

China has also imposed its own retaliatory tariff of 84 percent on U.S. goods, and the increased cost is expected to hit agricultural interests hard, particularly soybean farmers. U.S. manufacturers may also feel the effects of a slowdown. In California, a leading maker of CNC industrial machine tools - Haas Automation - has announced that it is scaling back hiring, production and overtime because of a "dramatic decrease in demand for our machine tools from both domestic and foreign customers."

The latest Chinese port operation to come under pressure is Australia’s Port of Darwin which is now a headline issue in the upcoming federal elections. Today, April 4, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared during a radio interview that Darwin “should be in Australian hands.” Concerns have been brewing over the now decade-old deal that ceded control of the port to a Chinese company.

Located on Australia’s north central coast the port while small in scope is seen as a strategic asset. It is Australia’s closest port to Asia and is playing an increasingly significant role in Australia’s expanding offshore oil and gas sector. In the port’s last fiscal year ended in 2024, it reported imports of more than 1 million kiloliters of petroleum products, handling over 280,000 head of cattle and being a major RoRo import operator for cars. It is a base to U.S. Marines and also a popular cruise ship destination.

Faced with financial difficulties, the government of Australia’s Northern Territories put out a public tender in 2014 and the following year concluded a deal with a Chinese company Landbridge. The operator gained a 99-year lease for the port and promised to make investments. Reports indicate that the U.S. with then-President Barack Obama voiced concerns over the Chinese deal.

Accusations have been raised about the operations with the Australian opposition party contending that Landbridge has failed to make the promised investments. In 2024 there were questions when Landbridge’s parent company went into default on an A$107 million (US$65 million) bond.

The company said in November 2024 that the “underlying operations of Darwin Port have improved significantly,” while reporting a nearly 50 percent increase in EBITDA earnings for FY 24. It blamed non-cash charges for an A$34 million (US$21 million) loss before taxes and said “Darwin Port remains a key asset of the group.”

Prime Minister Albanese announced the federal government is in talks with private pension fund investors on a possible deal to take over the operational lease for the port. He said the options were private investment or the federal government taking over the port. When asked in 2023, Albanese had ruled out a similar move to regain control of the port.

Opposition leaders have already spoken publicly about the need for the federal government to take control back from the Chinese. Media reports indicate they were going to make a formal public statement this coming Sunday, April 6, ahead of the May 3 federal elections.

Media reports said in March the federal government had discussions with the new government of the Northern Territory over possible steps. This came after Federal Labor MP Luke Gosling also made a public statement saying the federal government wanted to “return the port to Australian hands.”

Responding to the statements and media speculation, Terry O’Connor, Non-Executive Director for Landbridge in Australia, issued a statement in March calling the minister’s statement “a surprise,” and he asserted “Landbridge and Darwin Port have not been involved in any discussions on the matter.” He said they would engage with the Northern Territory government but the “port is not for sale.”

A local news outlet, NT News, however early in March reported Landbridge “could be willing to sell the port’s lease, but was asking A$1.3 billion (US$795 million). Reports indicate that is nearly A$800 million (approximately US$490 million) more than it paid in 2015 for the 99-year lease.

Iranian news agencies tied to the government and Revolutionary Guard are reporting that two foreign-owned tankers were apprehended earlier today, March 31, for diesel fuel oil smuggling. The crews are being detained and the vessels directed toward Iran.

Iran in the past has made accusations of vessels smuggling fuel, although today’s report asserts it is on a much larger scale. The Tasnim News Agency citing officials from the Revolutionary Guard is saying a “naval operation” was conducted in the central Persian Gulf. It is identifying the two vessels with the names Star 1 and Vintage, with some Western media reports saying one of the vessels appears to be owned by interests in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

They are contending the vessels are part of fuel smuggling networks and organized efforts to steal oil from Iran. They are reporting detaining 25 crewmembers after having seized 3 million liters of diesel fuel. The vessels are reportedly being taken to the Bushehr oil dock where the fuel will be unloaded under judicial order. The report says the tankers were identified through “intelligence monitoring” at the Bushehr port.

The action comes as tensions remain high in the region. Iranian officials said they are rejecting a letter from Donald Trump that demanded talks to resolve Iran’s nuclear program and threatened dire consequences. Trump reportedly said he could send long-range bombers to attack Iran.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy Commander, Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, threatened retaliation if Iran was attacked. He told reporters on Saturday if ordered he was prepared to close the Strait of Hormuz.

Reports indicated on Saturday, March 29, the second of two cargo ships carrying the base component for rocket fuel reached Iran after a trip from China. After processing, it could supply solid fuel for approximately 250 of Iran’s medium or short-range rockets.

Authorities in the Port of Vigo, Spain reported they moved quickly to reduce the navigation hazard and direct the MSC Houston V (58,300 dwt) containership into port after it reported a stack collapse. The objective was to get the vessel to dock to prevent further damage and the loss of more containers overboard.

The containership was off the southwest corner of Portugal near Cape St. Vincent when it encountered a strong late winter storm. The vessel is reported to have experienced winds approaching 50 knots. The last stack at the stern of the vessel collapsed to starboard ripping open several boxes. With boxes ripped open and hanging over the side of the vessel, her arrival attracted attention in the port on Friday, March 21.

A later survey in Vigo indicated that between 15 and 20 boxes went overboard. Port officials are saying that they have been advised there was no dangerous cargo in the containers involved in the collapse. Portuguese authorities however have issued a navigational warning for possible debris in the water.

The ship which was sailing from Piraeus to Liverpool, England was unable to divert to Leixoes, Portugal due to its size. It is 876 feet (267 meters) in length with a maximum draft of 41 feet (12.5 meters) with a carry capacity of 4,432 TEU. Built in 2010, the vessel has been operating for MSC since 2022 and is registered in Portugal.

Port officials said the cargo stabilization effort will be complicated. They moved the port’s cranes away from the berth and brought in a mobile crane for the work. Local media is reporting the repositioning efforts began on Sunday, March 23, and MSC’s online schedule shows the remaining in Vigo to March 27.