A US presidential election can send tremors across markets and industries, but dry bulk shipping will not be among the shaken, according to Hamish Norton.
On 3 November, the nation with the world's largest economy will vote on whether incumbent Donald Trump or former vice president Joe Biden will serve as its next president.
While billions across the globe may expect Trump and Biden victories to have different impacts on world affairs, the dry bulk sector may hardly notice, said Norton, the president of New York-listed shipowner Star Bulk Carriers.
"In all honesty, I do not believe either one will have much impact on the dry bulk market," he told TradeWinds.
"The US doesn’t import any significant dry bulk, and exports grain."
US grain exports totalled 101m tonnes during the 2019-2020 marketing season, down from 106m tonnes for 2018-2019 season, according to the US Grains Council.
Mexico imports the most US grain, taking in 23.7m tonnes during the latest season that ended in August.
By comparison, coarse grain imports for Canada, US and Mexico totalled 23.2m tonnes, according to US Department of Agriculture data.
The Trump-Biden difference
Trump has been regarded as a protectionist president, having carried out a multibillion-dollar tariff war with China in an effort to balance trade between the two largest economies on earth.
He has also placed steep taxes on imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union in a strategy to equalise trade with those countries as well.
Trump is also a big supporter of the oil and gas industry and in 2017 pulled the US out of the United Nation's Paris Agreement on climate change.
Biden, on the other hand, appears to have a much greener US agenda if he becomes president.
He has promised to rejoin the Paris talks and supports a $3trn Green New Deal renewable energy programme.
Biden, a Democrat, will most likely also roll back the contentious US-China trade war in favour for a more collaborative approach with China and other trade partners.
