The unexpected announcement regarding tariffs posed particular challenges for businesses like Luxor that rely on importing goods from Southeast Asia. The timing, unfortunately, coincided with the Eid holiday marking the end of Ramadan. Berschel noted that initial collection efforts by Luxor were met with silence due to factory congestion, explaining that some had “lines of trucks in front of them.” However, recognizing the situation, the warehouse eventually accommodated the hardware shipment.
Lin explained the urgency, saying, “We needed extensive communication across the supply chain to secure our pickup.” She emphasized the typical difficulty of arranging collections with just a few days’ notice, especially during a public holiday, stating, “It’s almost impossible under normal conditions.” Adding, “This urgent situation had never occurred before the tariff news.”
Luxor started pursuing a charter plane on April 3 for the large $12 million order, sizable enough to fill an entire aircraft. Lin stationed herself at her client’s location to swiftly communicate updates from the freight forwarder involved in negotiations with various airlines.
Throughout the day, charter plane prices inflated continuously. Each time Luxor’s client submitted a bid, it was immediately outbid by another party, restarting the bidding cycle. Lin described the high-pressure environment, saying, “The decision window was incredibly short. Typically, multimillion-dollar decisions aren’t made within such a compressed timeframe.”
Lin finalized a $1.76 million bid by midnight, but she reported that the price had been surpassed by the morning of April 4, soaring to $3.5 million. According to Sealion Cargo, air freight prices for certain cargo types surged as high as ten times their normal rates during the first week of April.
Luxor and their client ultimately abandoned the plan to charter a plane.
Simultaneously, conditions began to deteriorate at cargo terminals of major Southeast Asian airports.
Berschel, who traveled to Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore to observe shipment progress, described the scene as “absolute chaos.” He added, “The volume of cargo at the terminals made it extremely difficult to move shipments through x-ray scanners and onto the aircraft.”
Berschel recalled a severe backlog of pallets at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, creating a complete gridlock. With limited available dock space, truck drivers were transporting boxes from their vehicles toward the terminal. Law enforcement officials were present to manage the crowds. He remarked, “It was similar to a concert, but instead of music, it was for cargo.”
The disarray meant that even importers who had secured space on departing flights faced the risk of missing their loading window as they struggled to navigate the congestion to reach the aircraft. Berschel emphasized, “The chances of missing a flight, missing a loading window, were extremely high. We were often down to mere minutes.”
Airports of Thailand, the management company for Suvarnabhumi Airport, did not respond to requests for comments.
On April 8, Vlad Siniavsky was in his Montreal office awaiting his cargo. Siniavsky, the founder of AsicXchange, another bitcoin mining hardware trading company, was also caught in the tariff scramble, calculating the costs he incurred because of the situation.