The 9 Key Supply Chain Statistics That Tell the Story of 2025

Article Highlights:

• The 13 statistics below are each emblematic of the global supply chain in 2025, telling us something about how it was impacted, often by the larger geopolitical narratives shaping the world today.
• According to the Yale Budget Lab, as of November 17, the average effective tariff rate for all U.S. imports stood at just under 17%. This number remains the highest it’s been since 1935, when the U.S. embraced an aggressive protectionist trade policy that sought to shelter domestic farmers and businesses from foreign competitors in the decade-long struggle of the Great Depression. 
• 2025 has seen the U.S. move away from Chinese goods and manufacturing to a striking degree. During the first half of the year, U.S. imports from China were down nearly 17% compared with the same period in 2024. 
  

In some ways, this year has been a stark outlier from a supply chain perspective. Historically, stories around global supply chains are dominated by disruptions that fall outside our control—natural disasters, collapsed bridges, and transportation chokepoints. Recent examples include the Panama Canal drought, flooding from Hurricane Helene, the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, and more. 

Not so in 2025. This year, the factors most responsible for shaping supply chains and the news around them are far more strategic and deliberate. Major powers and political leaders are using their resources and leverage to try to gain an upper hand against rivals on the global stage. This pattern has been most evident with the Trump administration, which has implemented a sweeping tariff regime that’s reverberated major global markets. But it’s also on display in China, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and President Xi Jinping have leveraged their control of the critical minerals supply chain to bring America to the negotiating table and exert their influence globally. 

To illustrate this changing supply chain landscape, we've highlighted nine key statistics from 2025 that tell us how the world is changing. From tariffs to critical mineral dependencies to striking shifts in import patterns, the year may not have matched the COVID-19 era’s chaos—but it made one thing clear: supply chains are now being reshaped less by random shocks and more by deliberate policy and geopolitical leverage. 

From tariffs to critical mineral dependencies to striking shifts in import patterns, the year may not have matched the COVID-19 era’s chaos—but it made one thing clear: supply chains are now being reshaped less by random shocks and more by deliberate policy and geopolitical leverage. 

1. Total U.S. Customs Collections in FY2025 Reached $195 Billion

In the fiscal year starting on October 1, 2024, and ending on September 30, 2025, the U.S. federal government collected nearly $200 billion in customs duties. That figure is nearly three times higher than the total from the previous year—not surprising, when you consider just how aggressive and all-encompassing the Trump administration’s tariff regime has been since President Trump entered into office for his second term. But garnering what amounts to an additional $200 billion in import taxes is bound to have downstream impacts, and tariffs are affecting everything from U.S. import patterns to inflation in the U.S. economy to the viability of foreign businesses that rely on American consumers. 

Source: Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

2. The Average Effective U.S. Tariff Rate is Now 16.8%

According to the Yale Budget Lab, as of November 17, the average effective tariff rate for all U.S. imports stood at just under 17%. This number is actually down from earlier in this year: in August, the Yale Budget Lab reported an average U.S. tariff rate of nearly 19%. Nevertheless, it remains the highest it’s been since 1935, when the U.S. was embracing an aggressive protectionist trade policy that sought to shelter domestic farmers and businesses from foreign competitors in the decade-long struggle of the Great Depression. 

In 1930, Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, a sweeping measure that implemented or raised tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods. Today, the U.S. Senate characterizes the law as “among the most catastrophic acts in congressional history.” Before the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was even fully implemented, U.S. trading partners responded by hiking their tariffs on U.S. imports, stifling international trade and harming the global economy.

Source: Yale Budget Lab

3. U.S. Imports Totaled $2.1 Trillion in the First Half of 2025

When President Trump began implementing his tariff regime during the first half of 2025, part of his administration’s overarching objective was to reduce the U.S.’s reliance on foreign imports, thus cutting the nation’s trade deficit. Through the first six months of 2025—data for the full year won’t be available until sometime in 2026—that goal remains a far way off. According to the Peterson Institute for Economics, U.S. imports between January and July 2025 ticked in just under $2.1 trillion, compared with a total export value around $1.2 trillion. 

It may surprise some to hear that U.S. imports actually increased during that six-month time frame, compared with the same period in 2024. In fact, America imported an additional $190 billion worth of goods from January to July. This sounds highly counterintuitive, given the trade measures enacted by the Trump administration. But many U.S. businesses have been strategic about when they import foreign goods, utilizing periods where tariffs were suspended or postponed to stock up on inventory. As a result, imports during specific intervals of the year have surged, driving up overall figures.

Source: Peterson Institute for Economics

4. U.S. Imports from China Fell 17% in 2025

The Trump administration has made no secret of its keen interest in reducing America’s reliance on foreign manufacturing. Such a goal is in some ways synonymous with reducing U.S. reliance on China, a manufacturing juggernaut that U.S. businesses have grown increasingly dependent on in recent decades. But 2025 has seen the U.S. move away from Chinese goods and manufacturing to a striking degree. During the first half of the year, U.S. imports from China were down nearly 17% compared with the same period in 2024. 

Source: Peterson Institute for Economic

5. U.S. Imports from the EU Rose 14% in 2025

Just because the U.S. cut down on its reliance on China in 2025 doesn’t necessarily mean that America has wholeheartedly embraced domestic manufacturing. It seems that part of U.S. businesses’ strategy has been to seek trading partners anchored on firmer, more stable diplomatic ground (in this September article, Z2Data analyzed trade and import data between 2024 and 2025). And while President Trump has talked tough in regard to the U.S.’s relationship with European countries, actual tariff rates on the EU have been comparatively mild. As the Peterson Institute for Economics put it, “US tariff rhetoric was more hostile than tariff reality” as it pertains to Europe. 

The effects are clear: American imports from the EU spiked over 14% from January to July (compared with the same period in 2024). Given the emerging geopolitical dynamics and the resurgence of aggressive industrial policies, this trend may very well continue in the years to come. 

Source: Peterson Institute for Economics

6. Yttrium Prices Rose 4,400% in 2025 

While tariffs have been on the tip of everyone’s tongue in 2025, the flip side of that coin has been China’s own forceful industrial policy, one centered on critical minerals and rare earth elements (REEs). Because China controls so much of the mining and refining of these invaluable resources, any export restrictions they impose can have dire consequences for global supply chains. In April, China imposed export restrictions on yttrium, a REE used in catalytic converters, television screens, and semiconductor manufacturing, among other applications.

The results have been even more extreme than China might have predicted. As of November, prices for yttrium in Europe have ballooned over 4,000% since the beginning of the year. Less than $7 a kilogram in January, European buyers are now having to pay around $270 for the same quantity of the transition metal. Such an astounding surge in cost is a testament to how sensitive natural resources are to supply and demand dynamics—and to China’s ability to manipulate them at will. 

Source: Reuters

7. A&D Firms Face an Average $184M Annual Cost from Supply Chain Disruptions

While tariffs and critical minerals have shaped the narrative around the global supply chain in 2025, more traditional challenges are still taking a toll. According to Gartner, supply chain disruptions now cost aerospace and defense manufacturers $184 million a year. Even for billion-dollar businesses, this is a staggering figure and bolsters the argument that resilient organizations with the agility to respond decisively in a crisis can save their companies millions. 

Source: LeadDNA

8. U.S. Sets 25% Tariff on Imported Cars and Auto Parts

The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on a battery of different sectors, including timber, steel, aluminum, and even copper. But no sectoral tariff has reverberated through global manufacturing quite like President Trump’s 25% tariff on foreign cars and auto parts. Announced in March and implemented in May, the Trump administration’s duties on the multitrillion-dollar automotive industry have impacted the bottom lines of auto giants like GM, Ford, and Volkswagen, while also compelling many car manufacturers to ramp up their U.S. production to avoid tariffs altogether. 

The auto tariffs and the various adjustments the Trump administration has made to them during the year have also generated high levels of volatility in supply chains. According to Trucking Dive, freight flows of auto parts into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico have swung dramatically over the course of 2025. 

Source: Trucking Dive

9. 14 Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters Hit in H1 2025

Though few natural disasters have appeared in media headlines since the Los Angeles fires in January, the U.S. has continued to experience its share of high-cost weather events in 2025. According to the American Meteorological Society, America incurred 14 billion-dollar weather and climate events in the first six months of the year. These include not only California wildfires but also flooding, hurricanes, and other severe storm-related events. Due in large part to these 14 weather events, natural disasters occurring between January and June 2025 carried the highest collective price tag on record for the first six months of a calendar year (adjusted for inflation).  

Source: American Meteorological Society 

Build Supply Chain Resilience and Agility With Z2Data 

As distinctive as it has been in terms of its themes, 2025 also stood as a reminder of the perpetual volatility of global supply chains. Businesses accustomed to sourcing parts and products from all over the world were suddenly forced to navigate a complex, punitive tariff regime that imposed duty rates higher than at any other time over the past 90 years. And organizations that expected a steady, uninterrupted flow of critical minerals and rare earth elements from China experienced a rude awakening when the country began imposing severe export restrictions on key materials essential to cars, consumer electronics, and semiconductors.

Businesses that want to expand their visibility, intelligence, and control of supply chain risks can find a lot of utility in a supply chain risk management (SCRM) platform like Z2Data. Z2Data features a battery of powerful SCRM capabilities, including but not limited to: 

• Multi-tier supply chain visibility
• Comprehensive risk assessment at the supplier, site, and part level
• Real-time supply chain monitoring
• COO, COD, and other sourcing intelligence
• Obsolescence management
• Part discovery
• PCN Monitoring and workflow
• Supply chain due diligence
• Compliance risk analysis
  

To learn more about Z2Data and how its SCRM tool can help organizations effectively navigate tariffs, critical mineral dependencies, and old-fashioned supply chain disruptions, schedule a free trial with one of our product experts.