When Geopolitics Disrupts Trade: Shipping’s Playbook for Resilience
At the Supply Chain Leaders Forum 2025, Associate Professor Liping Jiang unpacked how shipping lines turned trade war shocks into strategic adaptation and navigates in the turbulence of the US-China trade war.
In her talk, “Strategic Responses to Trade War Disruptions: Lessons from the Shipping Sector,” Liping Jiang brought a maritime perspective to the stage, showing how carriers maintained logistics continuity in the face of geopolitical shocks. Drawing on industry data, she demonstrated how shipping lines used alliances, fleet redeployment, and network diversification to adapt under pressure — strategies that not only stabilized operations but also built long-term resilience.
Her analysis showed that global trade is re-routing rather than retreating, with ASEAN, India, Africa, and Latin America emerging as key growth regions. Shipping companies responded with a mix of defensive measures such as blank sailings and cost-cutting, alongside innovative approaches like launching new corridors, investing in multimodal transport, and strengthening hub connectivity.
Liping Jiang’s contribution highlighted actionable lessons for today’s supply chain leaders: balancing cost, resilience, and policy while broadening suppliers and securing new market access.
Her presentation was part of a wider program of talks at SCLF 2025, an annual event organized by the Department of Operations Management at CBS in collaboration with DTU and IDA. The forum brought together more than 320 practitioners and experts to discuss supply chain strategies in an era of fragmentation. Liping Jiang’s maritime lens added depth to the discussions, ensuring the shipping sector’s role in global resilience was firmly on the agenda.
Contact Liping Jiang for more information: lji.om@cbs.dk