Terrible timing and huge uncertainty: how ports and shipping are handling tariff turmoil

Dockworkers in Oakland, California, last week. Photograph: Noah Berger/AP

The container ship was halfway across the Atlantic when Donald Trump, during his first term in office, levied tariffs on steel and aluminium imports to the US from most countries.

At the stroke of a pen on a US presidential executive order, about £100,000 was added to the cost of one of the shipments onboard, from the UK advanced materials manufacturer Goodfellow, destined for a US customer.