Ships continue to unload products at the Port of Stockton, but the amount of goods has slowed down. In some cases, they have slowed dramatically.
“Our tonnages are down in certain sectors significantly,” said Port Director Richard Aschieris. “Steel is down significantly, we probably are down, well, nearly 100 percent of what we were importing from China.”
Liquid fertilizer is down even more, and farms throughout the Central and San Joaquin valleys that use that fertilizer are hit hard by tariffs.
“Just handling steel, we’re probably down about 75, 80 jobs,” said Aschieris. “And those are real, particularly to the people who had those jobs. So there is a local effect that is dramatic, when it comes to, particularly a port like the Port of Stockton that sits in an economically challenged region.”
Ironically, without the tariffs, this would have been one of the best years in recent memory, said Stockton’s port director.
