US Ship Sailed in Circles for a Month Over Tariffs

The Peak Pegasus may finally be able to rest its wings
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 10, 2018 12:37 PM CDT
US Ship Sailed in Circles for a Month Over Tariffs
Soybean farmer Michael Petefish holds soybeans from last season's crop at his farm near Claremont in southern Minnesota.   (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

A soybean-laden US cargo shipped that was cheered on as it sped from Seattle to Dalian, China, in hopes of arriving before a 25% tariff went into effect on July 6 didn't just not make it. The Peak Pegasus spent a month sailing in circles while still carrying its 70,000 tons of soybeans in hopes the tariff would be reversed and it could hold off unloading its cargo until then. The Guardian did the math and found that it was perhaps a sensible move: Unburdening itself in China would, under the new tariffs, cost it an additional $6 million or so. The beans belong to the Amsterdam-based company Louis Dreyfus, which is thought to be paying the ship's owner, JP Morgan Asset Management, $12,500 per additional day it's chartered.

So a little over a month in, its tab has gone up $400,000, meaning it could theoretically continue this way for months and still come out on top. But it looks like that won't be the case. China Global Television Network reports it learned from the Liaoning Maritime Safety Administration that the Peak Pegasus will dock in Dalian on Saturday. As for the details, CGTN simply says the soybean purchaser, Sinograin, "will settle the relevant import duties and tax according to the customs regulations of China." (More tariffs stories.)

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