Industry Updates: US Port Strike, Volkswagen Job Cuts in China and Overseas Buyers in Spain

Approximately half of imports into the United States could be in jeopardy if a deal isn’t reached between the government and a union representing 45,000 workers around the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico with shipping lines already announcing disruptions.

With four days left before a threatened port strike U.S. Department of Labor has reached out to the United States Martime Alliance and the International Longshoremen's Association to try to resolve the dispute.

According to the Reuters news agency the US Labour Department the government is willing to reach a settlement to avoid strike action with President Joe Biden ruling out invoking federal law to halt the industrial action.

Analysis by JP Morgan estimates that a work stoppage could cause $5 billion in economic damage per day.

The German car maker Volkswagen has started plan to cut corporate roles in the People’s Republic of China (PROC) as the company plans to gradually reduce operations by a fifth across the globe over the next three years.

Along with Volkswagen Audi has also announced a reduction in headcount in China as trade tensions boil between the country and the European Union over Electric Vehicle (EV) sales.

In Germany, a country currently facing deindustrialisation amid an energy crisis emanating from sanctions imposed on Russia following their invasion of Ukraine, the car company has announced factory closures for the first time.

While overall property sales in Spain have risen to the highest level in close to 20 years sales to people from abroad have fallen dramatically.

Q2 – April, May, June – saw transactions up by 10 percent totalling 189,909 home sales compared to a 6 percent year-on-year increase in the first half of the year.

However, according to land registers the demand from people outside Spain has dropped by close to half with the United Kingdom, Germany, and France reporting the largest drops. Growth was recorded from Irish, Polish, and Dutch buyers with buyers from the US up by just over 20 percent in Q2.