BWET vs. BDRY: Tariffs Split Shipping ETF Performance
- BWET has jumped 19% this year; BDRY has tanked 12%.
- BWET tracks oil tanker futures contracts while BDRY follows dry bulk futures.
- Trump tariffs were hit with a setback today by a US trade court.
Investors choosing their shipping ETFs the way James Bond ordered his martinis—dry—are most definitely shaken.
The $56.9 million Breakwave Dry Bulk Shipping ETF (BDRY) has lost 12% this year through May 27 amid a White House tariff war that’s taken a bite out of global container shipping demand.
A more stirring result has been with counterpart Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF (BWET). That $1.4 million exchange-traded fund tracks oil futures and has gained 19% on worries about violence in oil shipping lanes, even as futures dipped 17% this year.
Both ETFs are issued by Amplify, which manages $9.8 billion in 32 ETFs.
BWET vs. BDRY
BDRY tracks dry bulk transport for products like iron ore, coal and grain with a particular focus on ships transiting the Panama Canal. President Donald Trump has sought to exert more U.S. control over the canal and has criticized China’s role in the waterway usage. Big dry bulk importing nations like India and China have been targeted by Trump's tariffs.
President Trump’s tariff war—a mix of threats, duties imposed on trading partners and sudden reversals of import fees—has rattled the global shipping industry as the flow of goods between the U.S. and China slows. California has been hit hard, with ship arrivals being cancelled in April and May and more expected in June, according to local publication CalMatters.
BWET has jumped as tensions rise in the Baltic Sea over so-called shadow tankers that Russia is reportedly using to skirt European Union sanctions. France has deployed a military vessel to the Baltic Sea after Russia used a fighter jet to escort an oil tanker that Estonia had attempted to detain.
BWET vs. BDRY—Source: etf.com ETF Comparison Tool, FactSet data
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BWET jumped nearly 1% today after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade blocked Trump’s tariffs, saying a 1977 emergency trade act didn’t give him authority to impose the duties. BDRY drifted a half-percentage point lower.
