EXPEDITORS INTERNATIONAL OF WASHINGTON INC

Current report

Industry Risks

Current report

The current volatile international trade environment as a result of intergovernmental disputes, trade actions, increased tariffs and other geo-political risks may adversely impact our business and operating results

Current report

The United States has undertaken a substantial global tariff rebalancing effort, resulting in higher tariffs on imports, including significantly higher tariffs on goods made in China. These measures led to threatened or actual retaliatory tariffs on goods made in the United States from several countries, including China, the European Union, and Canada. This created an unpredictable trade environment for shippers to determine if and how to adapt their sourcing patterns given these new and fast-changing regulations. If these conditions result in a significant, short-term or longer-term, decrease or redistribution of international trade volumes, it could negatively affect our business volumes and revenues. Expeditors' activity is particularly exposed to trade volume impacts from trade actions and tariff disputes between China and the United States, as we generated 22% of our revenues and 17% of our operating income in 2024, on exports from China and Hong Kong. Uncertainty and changes to trade volumes, could also affect air and ocean freight carriers because they may adjust capacity and transportation schedules, which could result in volatility in available capacity, and average buy and sell rates, all of which could adversely impact our operations and financial results. Subsequent to March 31, 2025, we are seeing early signs that China to U.S. ocean volumes are declining significantly. While some of those volumes are shifting to other lanes, as customers look to mitigate their exposure to China-specific tariffs, it is too early to know what the overall decline in volumes might be. Speculation regarding additional tariffs may cause more customers to pause or cancel shipments entirely. Many of our customers are subject to the increased tariffs and may experience increased costs of conducting business. This could result in a loss of business, bad debt, or increased expenses in the future, if our customers' ability to pay deteriorates or if customers abandon cargo. Additionally, the increased complexity of trade regulations and customs declaration processes, challenge our ability to be in compliance with such ever-changing regulations and may require us to dedicate additional resources to our customs brokerage operations.

Current report

(shares in thousands)

Previous report

Operational Risks

Previous report

We face risks associated with the handling, transporting, and storing of customer inventory, including high value commodities.

Previous report

Under some of our agreements, we maintain and transport the inventory of our customers, some of which may be high value in nature. Our failure to properly handle and safeguard such inventory exposes us to potential claims and expenses as well as harm to our business and reputation.

Previous report

Our insurance coverage does not cover all potential losses and significant uninsured losses could adversely impact our financial results.

Previous report

We carry insurance coverage for property damage, personal injury and other insurable events resulting from certain events such as fire, accidents, and other perils under extended coverage policies. Our insurance coverages contain policy specifications and insured limits customarily carried for similar locations, business activities and markets. We believe we are adequately insured. Certain losses, however, including losses from floods, earthquakes, acts of war, acts of terrorism or riots, cybersecurity events and pandemics, generally are not insured against or not fully insured against because it is not deemed economically feasible or prudent to do so. In some instances, the value of our customers’ goods stored in a single facility or contained in a single shipment may be high in nature and may exceed our general property damage insurance policy limits. If an uninsured loss or a loss in excess of insured limits occurs with respect to one or more of our facilities in the future, we could experience a significant loss of assets, including customer inventory (inclusive of high value commodities), and future operations could be harmed resulting in a loss of revenues or higher claims and operating expenses.

Previous report

Furthermore, we cannot be sure that the insurance companies will be able to continue to offer products with sufficient coverage at commercially reasonable rates. If we experience a loss that is uninsured or that exceeds insured limits, then we could incur additional expenses or a loss of future revenues from a facility that is damaged. Any such losses or higher insurance costs could adversely affect our business.

Previous report

General Risks

Previous report

We identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting related to ineffective information technology general controls which, if not remediated appropriately or timely, could result in loss of investor confidence and adversely impact our stock price.

Previous report

Internal controls related to the operation of technology systems are critical to maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. As disclosed in Part II, Item 9A, during the fourth quarter of 2022, management identified material weaknesses in internal control related to certain database changes made to information technology (IT) systems that support the Company’s financial reporting processes. As management continued the remediation process and reviews, we identified additional IT controls that were not designed or operated appropriately that relate to these material weaknesses. Management concluded that unauthorized changes to databases and related applications could have gone undetected as controls to review and authorize direct changes that support several key operational and accounting systems excluded certain changes from review or were not captured, and as such were either not designed properly or did not operate effectively as designed. In addition, the system logic used to record direct changes excluded certain changes from being captured for review. As a result, management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2022 and 2023 and as of the date of this report. At this time, we are not able to estimate when full remediation of these material weaknesses will be completed. The material weaknesses will not be considered fully remediated, until the applicable controls operate for a sufficient period of time and management has concluded through additional testing that these controls are operating effectively. To the extent management is unable to ultimately conclude that the identified issues have been remediated, our ability to record, process and report financial information accurately, and to prepare financial statements within required time periods, could be adversely affected, which could subject us to litigation or investigations requiring management resources and payment of legal and other expenses, negatively affect investor confidence in our financial statements and adversely impact our stock price.