Trendwatch: European stocks slide as Trump’s Greenland tariff threat rattles investors; China hits 2025 GDP growth target on export boom, but can’t shake domestic chill; Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd alliance set for return to Suez Canal

European stocks slide as Trump’s Greenland tariff threat rattles investors

European shares fell sharply on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened additional tariffs until the United States was allowed to buy Greenland, reigniting trade tensions and casting doubt on deals reached earlier.

The pan-European STOXX 600 fell 1.3% in a gloomy start to a busy week packed with earnings and the World Economic Forum in Davos, which will be scrutinized for tariff cues and geopolitical outlook.

China hits 2025 GDP growth target on export boom, but can’t shake domestic chill

China's economy grew 5.0% last year, meeting the government's target by seizing a record share of global demand for goods to offset weak domestic consumption, a strategy that blunted the impact of U.S. tariffs but is increasingly hard to sustain.

Since its property sector crash in 2021, Beijing has guided resources towards the industrial complex rather than consumers to meet ambitious growth targets, creating endemic production overcapacity and forcing factories to look for buyers abroad.

Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd alliance set for return to Suez Canal

The Gemini Cooperation of Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd is expected to make its return to Red Sea and Suez Canal routings with a service connecting Indian sub-continent and Middle East ports with the Mediterranean.

Neither company has denied plans to return the Gemini first service to the Suez Canal route following last week’s announcement by Maersk that its MECL service will re-route to Suez.

IATA reconfigures WCS streams to include specialist cargo

IATA has reconfigured its conference streams for this year's World Cargo Symposium (WCS) in Lima, Peru, to focus on specialist cargo, regulations and digitalisation.

The trade body said its theme for 2026, Advancing Air Cargo in a Dynamic World, reflects the shifting geopolitics, new regulations and digital transformation that is shaping the industry and creating fresh opportunities across the air cargo industry.

IMF sees steady global growth in 2026 as AI boom offsets trade headwinds

The International Monetary Fund again edged its 2026 global growth forecast higher on Monday as businesses and economies adapt to U.S. tariffs that have eased in recent months and a continued AI investment boom that has fueled asset wealth and expectations of productivity gains.

The IMF in its World Economic Outlook update forecast global GDP growth at 3.3% in 2026, up 0.2 percentage point from its last estimate in October. That's even with 3.3% growth in 2025, which will also beat the October estimate by 0.1 percentage point, the IMF said.

PIL lines up eight LNG neo-panamaxes in
China–Korea split

Pacific International Lines has moved a step closer to its next phase of fleet renewal, signing letters of intent for eight LNG dual-fuel neo-panamax container ships in a deal split between Chinese and South Korean yards.

The Singapore-based liner operator has selected Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding in China and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea to each build four 13,000 teu vessels, according to multiple shipbuilding and market sources. Deliveries are pencilled in for 2028 and 2029.

SDC 12: Shipping’s sector’s underwater noise progress must continue - including in Arctic, say NGOs

As a meeting of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Construction (SDC 12) opens, the Clean Arctic Alliance is calling on member states to ensure the IMO continues to push for progress and action in reducing underwater noise from shipping, especially in Arctic waters where the levels of underwater noise are anticipated to nearly quadruple by 2030.

The Clean Arctic Alliance, made up of 24 not-for-profit organizations, is calling on IMO member states to ensure that at SDC12, technical needs that directly support policy tools are prioritized and not delayed.

EU halts US trade deal over Trump’s Greenland campaign

The European Union will suspend a trade deal framework with the United States in response to the Trump administration’s campaign to annex Greenland.

Bloc members voted during a session of the European Parliament on Wednesday to indefinitely suspend the pact, which was formalized in Turnberry, Scotland, in August.

Under the terms of the framework deal, the U.S. would have limited tariffs on EU imports at 15% while the bloc would remove levies on U.S. industrial products and provide preferential market access to a range of U.S. food exports. Additionally, the deal called for the U.S. to levy a 15% tariff on EU cars and auto parts, with the countries also agreeing to cooperate on automobile standards.