Visitors to a centuries-old tourist site in eastern China were sent scrambling after hundreds of roof tiles came loose and cascaded more than two stories to the ground. The Fengyang Drum Tower—built in 1375 and used to announce the beginning of ceremonies and the time of day—is one of the largest such towers in China, according to state media. The tower is a major tourist attraction in Anhui province, which is around 200 miles away from Beijing, China’s capital. But on Monday the quiet around the site was shattered as hundreds of roof tiles began slipping from the roof and crashing to the ground, raising a huge cloud of gray-brown dust. “The tile falling lasted for a minute or two,” one eyewitness told Yangcheng Evening News, a state-controlled newspaper. Another witness described how he heard the crisp sound of one tile falling after another from a shop at the entrance of the Drum Tower. “There was no one in the square and no one was injured,” he told state media outlet The Beijing News. “If it happened a little later, there would be many children playing (near the tower) after dinner.” The local culture and tourism bureau said no casualties had been reported and that the “situation is under investigation.” The collapse happened just a year after the tower was renovated following minor damage to the roof. However, the building consists of two parts: the original Ming-era tower base and the tower on top of it. Damages mainly happened to the latter, which was once rebuilt in 1995, local officials say. Fengyang county is famous for its history and culture, and was the hometown of Zhu Yuanzhang (the Hongwu Emperor), founder of the Ming dynasty. He oversaw a prosperous era fueled by strong international trade and a growing population. During this time, China replaced its traditional currency of silver and gold with paper money.

Chinese swimmer Yu Zidi has been described as a “sensation” after producing the fastest ever time by a 12-year-old in the 200-meter individual medley. Yu clocked a time of 2:10.63 at the Chinese National Championships in Shenzen on Sunday, finishing second behind two-time Olympic bronze medalist Yu Yiting. The time would have seen the younger Yu qualify for the semifinals at last year’s Paris Olympics and took almost two seconds off her personal best. “12-year-old sensation alert!” World Aquatics posted on X. “Yu Zidi just swam a blazing 2:10.63 in the women’s 200m IM at the Chinese Nationals – the fastest ever time by a 12-year-old.” Yu, who turns 13 in October, missed out on qualifying for the Paris Olympics but could earn a spot on China’s team for the upcoming World Aquatics Championships in Singapore in July, per Reuters. She followed up her stellar 200m IM performance with a second-place finish in the 200m butterfly semifinals, finishing in 2:08.52 and qualifying for Wednesday’s final.

Just days after the United States and China declared a temporary truce over tariffs, tempers are already flaring: this time over the future of Beijing’s most advanced homegrown semiconductors. Over the past week, Beijing has repeatedly lashed out at Washington for warning companies against using AI chips made by national tech champion Huawei. It has even accused the Trump administration of “undermining” a consensus reached at recent trade talks in Geneva, where both sides agreed to temporarily roll back tariffs and use a 90-day window to hash out a broader deal. The conflict over Huawei’s most advanced chips serves as a reality check that despite the positive words shared by US and Chinese negotiators last week, there are still sharp differences between the two sides on a variety of subjects that may be difficult to bridge. On Wednesday, China’s Commerce Ministry fired its latest broadside, accusing the US of “abusing export controls to suppress and contain China” and engaging in what it called “typical acts of unilateral bullying and protectionism.” China was responding to the Trump administration’s announcement last week rescinding a set of Biden-era curbs meant to keep AI chips out of the hands of foreign adversaries. As part of that announcement, the US Commerce Department issued guidance on May 12 warning companies that “using Huawei Ascend chips anywhere in the world would violate US export controls.” The department has since changed its wording to remove the reference of “anywhere in the world” in an updated version of the statement. The Ascend chips are Huawei’s most powerful AI processors, which are used to train AI models and aim to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in designing high-end chips. Huawei’s efforts are central to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s plans to build up China’s own capacity to develop cutting-edge chips as it vies for AI supremacy with the US. At a top political meeting last month, Xi called for “self-reliance” to develop AI in China, saying his country would leverage its “new whole national system” to target bottlenecks such as advanced chips. Beijing’s ire On Monday, Beijing signaled the US Commerce Department’s wording change in the updated statement on Huawei wasn’t enough to end the feud. In a statement, China’s Commerce Ministry said that despite the “adjustment” in wording, the “discriminatory measures and market-distorting nature” of the guidance itself remained unchanged. “China has engaged in negotiations and communications with the US at various levels through the China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism, pointing out that the US actions seriously undermined the consensus reached during the high-level talks in Geneva,” the ministry said, urging the US to “correct its mistake.” The ministry’s latest statement on Wednesday came with an extra warning from Beijing to global businesses, threatening legal action against anyone who helps what it calls a US attempt to “globally ban the use of advanced Chinese chips.” “Any organization or individual that implements or assists in implementing these US measures may be in violation of China’s Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law and other relevant laws and regulations, and must bear corresponding legal responsibilities,” the statement said. “China will closely monitor the implementation of the US measures and will take resolute steps to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” it added. There has been no announcement of further trade talks between the US and China. But last Friday, US trade representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese trade envoy Li Chenggang met on the sidelines of a gathering of APEC trade ministers in South Korea, Reuters reported.

Shares in China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s largest electric vehicle battery maker, surged as much as 18% on its first day of trading in Hong Kong, shrugging off geopolitical uncertainties. On Tuesday, CATL shares opened at 296 Hong Kong dollars ($37.8), well above the subscription price of 263 Hong Kong dollars ($33.6) in a stock listing that raised $4.6 billion last week. Its shares rose to as much as 311 Hong Kong dollars during the trading day, according to Refinitiv data. The listing, the world’s largest so far this year, is the latest example of how Chinese companies are pressing ahead with their global expansion plans despite ongoing trade tension with the US. In January, CATL was added to a Pentagon blacklist of companies that it alleges work with China’s military, although it has denied such links. Last month, the House Select Committee on China demanded that US investment banks JPMorgan and Bank of America withdraw from underwriting CATL’s Hong Kong listing. Both stuck with the deal. “The Hong Kong stock listing signifies our deeper integration into the global capital markets,” Robin Zeng, the company’s founder and chairman, said at a listing ceremony at the Hong Kong stock exchange. “CATL is not just a battery component manufacturer, but also a provider of system-level solutions, and is more committed to becoming a zero-carbon technology company.” The firm supplies major EV makers – including Volkswagen, Stellantis and BMW – and its overseas sales accounted for over 30% of its revenue last year, according to a May 12 stock exchange filing. The National Business Daily, a Chinese state-run newspaper, said the listing would provide a necessary capital boost for CATL’s international expansion as it has been constrained by limited foreign currency reserves and rising geopolitical risks. The company’s Hong Kong listing will not only build up its foreign currency reserves, providing ample “ammunition” to support its overseas projects, but also leverage international capital to enhance its ability to integrate cross-border resources, the paper quoted an unnamed CATL representative as saying. Largest EV battery maker CATL’s Hong Kong debut came weeks after it unveiled an EV battery that boasts a range of 320 miles on a five-minute charge, compared to Tesla-rival BYD’s technology which provides 250 miles in range at a similar charge time. CATL held the title of the world’s largest electric battery supplier for the eighth year in 2024, holding 38% of the global market, according to SNE Research, a market research and consultancy firm. By late last year, its batteries were used in one out of every three EVs worldwide, powering about 17 million vehicles, according to the May filing. This is the second listing for the company based in the city of Ningde in southeast China’s Fujian province. In 2022, it raised $6.7 billion in a Shenzhen IPO. CATL first announced its intention to list in Hong Kong last December, as part of a plan to grow the company’s global footprint in places such as Europe, with the expansion of its facilities in Hungary. As of last year, CATL operates 13 battery factories around the world, including in China, Germany and Hungary, according to its filing. It is also making progress on a joint venture in Spain with Stellantis, the owner of Fiat and Chrysler, to build a battery plant, and a separate battery-related project in Indonesia. For now, even though US and China have temporarily rolled back their triple-digit tariffs, President Donald Trump’s tariffs on vehicles and car parts have remained. In response to the levies, CATL said in the filing that it cannot predict future tariff policies or the potential impact from them. Its revenue from products directly exported from China to the US has been relatively small in recent years. “Tariff policies are still evolving rapidly. At this stage, it is difficult to accurately assess their impact on our business. We will closely monitor the developments,” the company said in the May 12 filing.

HONG KONG — In the latest sign of the growing edge China’s clean energy companies have on their U.S. competitors, the country’s leading electric vehicle battery maker raised $4.6 billion in its Hong Kong trading debut Tuesday — the largest in the world this year. Shares of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., or CATL, the largest EV battery maker, traded as much as 18.4% above the listing price of 263 Hong Kong dollars ($33.61), raising at least $4.6 billion. At a ceremony at the stock exchange in central Hong Kong, CATL’s billionaire founder, Robin Zeng, marked the start of trading by banging a bronze “megagong” reserved for only the biggest listings. The company, which makes batteries for Tesla and other automakers and has a tech licensing agreement with Ford, controls more than a third of the global market for EV batteries. “It’s the 800-pound gorilla in the battery space,” said Lei Xing, an independent analyst of the Chinese auto industry based in Amherst, Massachusetts. “You could look at it as the Tesla of batteries.” China's leading electric vehicle maker selling cars for $10,000 02:50 International investors clamored for CATL stock despite U.S.-China tensions that have effectively kept it and other Chinese EV and battery makers — and their world-leading technology — out of the United States, the second-largest passenger vehicle market in the world after China. U.S. investors were restricted from buying stock unless they had offshore accounts. Zeng was joined by officials representing the coastal city of Ningde in China’s Fujian province, where CATL is based. “The Hong Kong listing means that we are more deeply integrated into the global capital market, and it marks a new starting point in promoting the global zero-carbon economy,” he said. The listing is also a boost for the Chinese territory of Hong Kong, an international financial hub where the market has been sluggish in recent years. One reason Chinese companies are choosing to list in Hong Kong is to mitigate geopolitical risk, Xing said, as it’s “closer to home, safer.” In the United States, CATL is among dozens of companies the Defense Department blacklisted in the final days of the Biden administration over alleged ties to the Chinese military, which CATL denies. The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party cited that blacklisting last month in letters urging Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase to withdraw from the deal — both banks remained involved. A group of men bang a gong and clap in celebration CATL Chairman Robin Zeng, second right, bangs a gong to mark the Chinese EV battery maker’s trading debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.Peter Parks / AFP via Getty Images Ford has faced questions from lawmakers over an agreement to license technology from CATL to produce battery cells at a $3.5 billion battery plant in Michigan. Chinese EV and battery makers also face a 100% U.S. tariff on EVs and a 25% tariff on lithium-ion EV batteries introduced by the Biden administration, as well as the steep tariffs on all Chinese imports imposed by President Donald Trump, with both presidents citing unfair trade practices by Beijing. CATL says the impact of tariffs is minimal given its limited business in the United States. Experts say the trade barriers could slow the development of American EVs, whose high prices have discouraged consumers from buying. It would take “at least a decade” for the United States to develop its own version of CATL, Xing said. The company, which was founded in 2011 and is already listed in the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen, reported $50 billion in revenue last year, about 70% of it in China. It faces intense competition, however, from Chinese rivals such as BYD — reporting an almost 10% decrease in revenue last year, the first such drop since CATL began releasing operating figures in 2015. CATL says it will use almost all of the money raised in Hong Kong to build a $7.3 billion factory in Hungary, allowing it to make batteries in Europe for automakers such as BMW, Stellantis and Volkswagen. “They know that in order to continue to grow the way they want to, they really need to establish a presence outside of China,” said Tu Le, the Detroit-based founder and managing director of Sino Auto Insights. “And the $4½ billion-dollar IPO is effectively building a war chest for them to do that.” The “irony,” Le said, is that “it could be the CATLs and the BYDs that provide the jobs for Americans moving forward, because they’re really leading the way.” CATL said last month that its new battery cell could give a car more than 300 miles of driving range with just five minutes of charging. “At the end of the day, the only way to make more affordable electric vehicles is to lower the battery pack price,” Le said. “And the only game in town currently able to do that are Chinese players.”

A Japanese comic book warns of a “real catastrophe.” A psychic predicts mass destruction. A feng shui master urges people to stay away. This might sound like the plot of a disaster movie but for Japan’s tourism industry, a recent spate of so-called earthquake-related “predictions” like these has led to more superstitious travelers, particularly in East Asia, canceling or delaying their holidays. Seismologists have long warned that accurately predicting when an earthquake might strike is all but impossible. Japan is a country with a good track record of withstanding even powerful tremors and the prospect of a major quake is something its population lives with on a daily basis. But the fear of a “big one,” amplified by both soothsayers and social media, is prompting some travelers to get cold feet. And for many, it’s a comic book that’s scaring them away. Published by manga artist Ryo Tatsuki in 1999, “The Future I Saw” warned of a major disaster in March 2011, a date which turned out to coincide with the cataclysmic quake that struck Japan’s northern Tohoku region that month. Her “complete version” released in 2021 claimed that the next big earthquake will hit this July. At the same time, psychics from Japan and Hong Kong have shared similar warnings, triggering some unfounded panic online that has led to a flurry of cancelations of travel plans from destinations in the region. CN Yuen, managing director of WWPKG, a travel agency based in Hong Kong, said bookings to Japan dropped by half during the Easter holiday and are expected to dip further in the coming two months. The speculations have scared off mostly travelers from mainland China and Hong Kong, which are Japan’s second- and fourth-largest sources of tourists, respectively. But the fear has also spread to other markets such as Thailand and Vietnam, where social media platforms are overflowing with posts and videos warning people to think twice before traveling to Japan. Anxieties provoked by these prophecies have, according to Yuen, become “ingrained.” He added that “people just say they want to hold off their trip for now.” The premonitions Japan is no stranger to severe earthquakes. It lies on the Ring of Fire, an area of intense seismic and volcanic activity on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. Fears of a “big one” have been mounting since the Japanese government warned in January that there was an 80% chance of a severe earthquake hitting the country’s southern Nankai Trough within 30 years. Some seismologists have been critical of these warnings, questioning whether they can ever be accurate. Tatsuki’s work has a significant following in East Asia and her fans often believe she can accurately see future events in her dreams. She draws a cartoon version of herself in the manga, where she shares visions she gleans from her slumbers with other characters. Some of these dreams turn out to bear close resemblance to real-life events. Her 2011 quake prediction — or coincidence — made Tatsuki famous not just in Japan but also in other parts of Asia like Thailand and China. The comic book has sold 900,000 copies, according to its publisher. It has also been published in Chinese. Fans believed she also predicted the deaths of Princess Diana and singer Freddie Mercury, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic, however critics say her visions are too vague to be taken seriously. The manga’s cover bears the words “massive disaster in March, 2011,” leading many to believe that she predicted the 9.0-magnitude earthquake more than a decade before it hit Tohoku. The quake triggered a deadly tsunami that killed tens of thousands and crippled the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia raised the alert level of Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki to the highest after it erupted eight times over the weekend, its volcanology agency has said. Lewotobi Laki Laki, located on Flores island in eastern Indonesia, spewed volcanic ash between 1.86 and 3.42 miles high on Sunday, agency head Muhammad Wafid said in a statement late Sunday. “Our analysis showed that the activities of Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki are still high so we raised the status level starting on Sunday” at 8 p.m. (9 a.m. ET), he said. Images shared by the agency showed clouds of thick gray ash billowing from the crater. Rumbling noises with low to high intensity were heard from the nearest monitoring post during the eruption, Wafid added. On Monday morning, the volcano erupted again, belching ash clouds three-quarters of a mile high. The agency said a radius of more than 3.5 miles from the crater must be cleared and warned residents of the risk of cold lava flow from the crater once heavy rains took place. There has not been any evacuation of residents or flight cancellations due to the eruptions so far, said Heronimus Lamawuran, a local government official. In March, an eruption at Lewotobi Laki Laki forced some airlines to cancel and delay flights into Bali, including Australia’s Jetstar and Qantas Airways. At least nine people were killed and thousands were evacuated when the volcano erupted in November last year. Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of high seismic activity atop multiple tectonic plates.

MALIPO, China — The rural villages of Malipo are a world away from gleaming Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai, reached by narrow roads that sometimes skirt dangerously close to deep ravines. Schoolchildren eat simple breakfasts while squatting on sidewalks, and even a local official complained that the remote mountain villages lacked access to the latest 5G internet connection. But Chinese officials point to overall progress in this thickly forested, highly mountainous border region in southwest China as a reason for their “confidence” in the country’s development model and in its ability to weather any trade war with the United States. “We have full confidence and the capability to overcome all difficulties,” Vice Foreign Minister Hua Chunying said last week during a government-sponsored trip to the rural county of Malipo in Yunnan province, on the border with Vietnam. “As for what the United States is doing, we really don’t want any kind of war, but if we have to face up to reality, then we have no fear at all,” she told reporters at a middle school. “The ordinary people already feel the suffering from the tariff war, so I really hope the [U.S.] administration will come back to normal.” Hua was speaking before the U.S. and China agreed to slash tariffs on each other’s imports in what Beijing said showed the effectiveness of its resistance against President Donald Trump’s tariff “bullying.” She and other officials said Malipo, where 233,000 people are spread among several towns and hundreds of “village groups,” is a model for China’s poverty alleviation efforts in recent decades. Per capita disposable income in Malipo was $2,300 a year last year, compared with about $69 a year in 1992. But Beijing’s professed confidence belies real concern about the work that remains to be done as well as the potential impact of U.S. tariffs as China struggles with structural imbalances and slowing economic growth. The situation spans China’s urban-rural divide and is obvious even to residents of Malipo. “The economy is not that good,” said Liu Huixin, a vendor selling processed fruits and other products from Vietnam and Thailand at a market. “Look at many shops around, people are not buying,” he said. Ending “absolute poverty” — a goal that Chinese President Xi Jinping said was officially achieved at the end of 2020 — is considered essential for reducing income inequality in the world’s second-biggest economy as it strives to catch up with the United States. More than 450 million of China’s 1.4 billion people live in rural areas, and getting them to spend more on consumer products is crucial as China tries to reduce its economic dependence on exports threatened by tariffs. China has also touted its “poverty alleviation” program as a model for developing countries in the Global South that face similar challenges. “The experience of Malipo in poverty alleviation has global significance,” said Liu Guiqing, 40, a senior Chinese diplomat who is also county vice mayor of Malipo under a program that partners central government ministries and wealthy provinces and institutions with impoverished areas. Hua said the strength of China’s system is its ability to “concentrate resources” on people’s urgent needs. Beijing is thought to have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on poverty alleviation since 2015. China’s approach to reducing inequality combines “coercive top-down control” with high social spending in an effort to “highlight the perceived failures of liberal free-market capitalism,” Rana Mitter, a historian and political scientist at the Harvard Kennedy School, wrote in a new Foreign Affairs article. Programs such as the one in Malipo are “an increasingly important part of China’s messaging, that it has development solutions for rural as well as urban areas,” Mitter told NBC News. “This is likely to be particularly attractive in the many Global South countries that still have large agricultural sectors and may look to Chinese examples to find ways to modernize their own rural area,” he said. Companies investing in Malipo are still motivated by the “invisible hand of the market forces,” said Jason Choi, director of the Sunwah Group, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate. He said the improved infrastructure and government support were important factors in the decision by his family’s company to invest about $7 million in a modern tea factory in Malipo, as well as the branding potential associated with Malipo’s ancient tea trees. “We have created employment directly for more than a hundred people, and for some 10,000 people downstream and upstream,” said Choi, 25. In nearby Jinping, another county targeted for poverty alleviation, Colorful Group, a company based in the Chinese technology hub of Shenzhen that specializes in graphics cards used in video games, has invested some $15 million in a smart agriculture company and other ventures, creating production jobs for more than 200 people, and for many more engaged in contract farming. Its corn products are sold in China at Walmart’s Sam’s Club, 7-Eleven shops and on the e-commerce platform JD.com, in addition to being exported to Southeast Asia and elsewhere. Asked about the impact of the U.S.-China trade war, Malipo Mayor Xiao Changju pointed to the rapid development prospects of border trade with Vietnam and other Southeast Asian nations. She also echoed a line frequently used by Chinese officials, saying: “We don’t like to fight a trade war, but we are not afraid of one.”

President Donald Trump’s tariff pause gives Temu and Shein a temporary window of opportunity to restock U.S.-based warehouses and re-evaluate their supply chain management, experts and insiders say. On Monday, the U.S. and China agreed to lower tariffs on most Chinese imports to 30% for 90 days. The agreement included a relaxation of the so-called “de minimis” rule, effective Wednesday, which will see low-value packages shipped to the U.S. from China now be taxed at a tariff rate of 54%, down from 120% previously. Previous tariff rates had driven price increases for U.S. consumers on Shein’s platforms. Meanwhile, Temu halted direct shipments from China altogether, leading to some disruptions in fulfilling its U.S. orders. But the recent tariff cut has given them a chance to ramp up shipments from China and restock their warehouses and fulfill existing orders, supply chain experts say. “In the short term, [Temu and Shein] are definitely going to increase their shipment volume to the U.S.,” said Anand Kumar, associate director of research at Coresight Research, adding that it will also help the companies reassess their long-term strategy. According to Jason Wong, who has been associated with Temu's product logistics in Hong Kong, the company has paused shipments from China after the end of the “de minimis” exemption and relied on U.S. stockpiles to fulfill orders. Under the latest tariff policy, Wong anticipates that bulk shipments subject to the 30% tariff rate will resume to the U.S., replenishing these stockpiles. ″30% is still high, but compared to 125%, 30% is basically nothing,” he added. Small values, higher levies The tariffs situation nevertheless remains more complicated for small-value packages under “de minimis.” The latest policy update retains a $100 flat fee per postal item, while scrapping a previously planned increase to $200 starting in June, according to an executive order released by the White House on Monday. According to Wong, for Temu to resume its small-value shipments from China to the U.S., the tariffs still need to be relaxed further — something he expects will happen eventually. Shein has not said that it is ending direct shipments from China. However, it says on its platform that “tariffs are included in the price you pay.” The reduction in tariffs on low-value packages shipped to the U.S. from China could therefore result in the easing of some prices, said Coresight’s Kumar. In anticipation of changes to the “de minimis” exemption, Shein has also expanded its supply chains, building manufacturing operations in countries such as Turkey, Mexico and Brazil. It also reportedly plans to shift production to Vietnam. Shein and Temu did not immediately respond to CNBC requests for comment. On May 2, Trump ended the “de minimis” exemption policy, which analysts had criticized as hurting local businesses and disguising illicit fentanyl trade. The small-package tariff exemption had helped Temu and Shein maintain budget prices on the merchandise they shipped directly from China. The U.S. government had briefly suspended the exemption in February before reinstating the provision days later, as customs officials struggled to process and collect tariffs on a spate of low-value packages. U.S. rivals like Amazon, on whose platform many third-party sellers offload products sourced or assembled by Chinese manufacturers, are also expected to ramp up shipments during the 90-day window, trade experts said. “All the companies are just going to scramble to get everything they can into the country as quickly as they can,” said Cameron Johnson, Shanghai-based senior partner at consultancy firm Tidalwave Solutions. “Everybody’s in the same boat.”

Businesses have begun ramping up shipments to the United States from China after President Donald Trump paused some of his tariffs on imports from that country, creating a surge in demand that could lead to supply chain bottlenecks in the coming months. Freight bookings out of China increased nearly 300% this week compared to the week earlier, soaring to the highest levels of the year, said Ben Tracy, vice president of strategic business development at Vizion, a company that produces container-tracking software. That came after Trump announced Monday that he was reducing the tariff on Chinese imports for 90 days while Washington and Beijing continue trade talks. U.S. companies halted shipments and canceled orders last month, when Trump ratcheted up his tariffs on Chinese imports to more than 145%, making it unaffordable for many companies to import their goods. While Chinese imports still face a 30% tariff, companies appear to be taking advantage of the 90-day pause on the higher tariffs to catch up on delayed shipments and get as many products into the U.S. as they can at the relatively lower rate. “Over the past month, we saw a huge drop off in trans-Pacific trade, especially from China, dropping by 60% or more in terms of those volumes,” said Jessica Dankert, vice president for supply chain at the Retail Industry Leaders Association. “So now that we have at least relative certainty for the 90-day window, we definitely expect to see those volumes ramp back up again.” But despite the pause to some tariffs, companies aren't expecting smooth sailing in the coming months. It can typically take around a month for goods to travel from China to the U.S., but a surge in demand and limited numbers of ships, port docking space and trucks to transport goods could add up to several additional months of time, said Bryan Gross, a principal at PwC who works on supply chain issues. “There’s only a certain amount of capacity in that pipe, it can only expand so far. There’s only a certain number of container ships. There’s only a certain number of appointments in the ports to be able to consume that capacity,” he said. “That bubble of goods is going to start flowing through the system, but it’s constrained by the size of the pipe.” That supply and demand imbalance could also lead to higher shipping rates, which have already jumped in recent days. Because it can take several months for a ship to travel to the U.S. then back to China, an increase in ships leaving China in the coming days and weeks could lead to a shortage of container ships available this summer, which is the peak time for retailers to be shipping their back-to-school and holiday merchandise. “What may be an issue is that in two months time, which would be peak season for retail, we might not have enough containers available in China to load, and not only containers, but also not enough ships there,” Tracy said. For other industries, it could already be too late to get the goods in time for their peak season. U.S. fireworks importers halted many of their shipments coming from China in April because they couldn't afford the higher tariff rates, said Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association. While the China tariffs remain a significant cost at 30%, companies have started to resume shipments, she said. But it will likely be too late for some to get their goods in time for Fourth of July, resulting in shortages of certain products. “Everybody is scrambling now to try to take advantage of the 90-day pause. But those sailings, the bookings take a while. It’s not like you just flick a light switch and everything is back on,” Heckman said. “Companies are making those arrangements, they’re going to try to get in what they can, but some of that’s probably going to come after the Fourth of July.” There could also be consequences for next year, when America is celebrating the 250th anniversary of its independence and the fireworks industry was expecting a surge in demand. Many fireworks companies halted their production in China during April as a result of the uncertainty around the tariffs. While some have restarted that production, they have lost valuable manufacturing time during a limited window when Chinese companies can produce fireworks for the U.S. market, Heckman said. Retailers also remain concerned about the longer-term impact that tariffs could have on their businesses as they try to plan for the coming months. “Now that we have a window of a bit more certainty for the immediate future, there’s the ability to plan a little bit more and try and get some of the more critical goods in production and on the water and brought into the U.S.,” Dankert said. “But I think looking long term, what the business and what the industry really needs is the sense of stability and the kind of certainty going forward to make those longer decisions around ordering.”