COVID-19 boosts drop-shipping, fractional trade means U.S. wins on a technicality — Panjiva
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COVID-19 boosts drop-shipping, fractional trade means U.S. wins on a technicality

China 3053 Cons. Discr. - Apparel 531 Cons. Discr. - Durables 575 Coronavirus 511 Corp - Forwarders 347 Corp - Ports 911 Corp - Shipping 1030 Industrials - Capital Goods 623 Materials - Chemicals 273 Materials - Metals/Mining 796 Mode - Containerized 1525 Mode - Seaborne 1846 Singapore 71 South Korea 605 Trade Balance 935 U.S. 5404 Vietnam 414

The number of U.S. seaborne import shipments surged 13.0% higher year over year in April. That may be counter-intuitive given the economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it’s due to a 343% surge in the number of smaller, less-than-container load (LCL) shipments coming from China. A rise in LCLs is likely due to increased direct-to-consumer e-commerce, also known as drop-shipping, as well as reduced manufacturing capacity in China for smaller manufacturers despite widespread reopenings of factories. Containerized shipments from China still only fell by 7.7%...

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