Donald Trump-led tariffs on steel and aluminium imports should have no impact on shipping's drybulk sector, says Genco chief executive John Wobensmith.
"Drybulk stocks have actually been going up through this whole period of fake news on steel tariffs on CNN and Bloomberg," he said.
"That's pretty indicative of what the reality is," he added, at a Capital Link conference at Manhattan's Metropolitan Club.
Fellow panel members included chief executives Jan Dieleman of Cargill, Polys Hajioannou of Safe Bulkers, Robert Bugbee of Scorpio Bulkers, Stamatis Tsantanis of Seanergy and Hamish Norton of Star Bulk Carriers.
Bugbee drew a hearty laugh out of the crowd of investors and fellow industry members by mentioning what he considers a calming effect on the sector.
"I think it's very comforting in shipping to also know that if you screw up in shipping you can become secretary of the United States," he said.
Bugbee was referring to US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, a major shareholder of Navigator Holdings accused of failing to disclose ties to a Russian energy company.
Ross has been a supporter of the tariffs, which are expected to come into effect in about a week.
After the talk, Wobensmith told TradeWinds that he expects the tariffs to have no impact because China is 11th on the list of steel importers to the US and much larger suppliers Canada and Mexico are exempt.
"The Chinese are like, what are we going to retaliate against because they're really not exporting steel very much," he said.
China accounts for 2% of US steel imports while Canada, the European Union and South Korea make up almost half of US imports.
