Shein's filing shows a tariff change entering retail margins and demand, while Chile's storm stopped copper operations; the two shocks bind at different points in their supply chains.
Economics & Markets··Morning
The small-parcel exemption closes
Shein reported a first-quarter 2026 loss of 99 million dollars, against 395 million dollars of profit a year earlier. US revenue fell 14.3% to 2.04 billion dollars and operating margin narrowed from 3.9% to 2.9%. The company said the US removal of the de minimis exemption for low-value parcels hurt sales and raised expenses. Because the result also included a fair-value charge of 328 million dollars on convertible preferred shares, the entire loss is not a tariff effect.[1]
Snow and power stop copper
A deadly storm in Chile disrupted output and ore shipments at major copper operations. Codelco halted surface work at Andina and shipments from El Teniente, while activity was reduced at Los Bronces and Los Pelambres. Caserones suspended production after snowfall cut power. The affected sites have about 1.6 million tonnes of combined annual capacity, but most stoppages were precautions rather than responses to confirmed physical damage.[2]
Two shocks, two binding points
A tariff change raises a border cost without stopping physical flow, leaving the seller to allocate the burden across margin, price and sales volume. The storm directly stops ore flow, so the loss depends on outage duration. Shein's accounting charge prevents its net loss from measuring tariff burden on its own, while Chile's annual-capacity figure is not realised lost production. The connection is not price direction: one chain binds at customs, the other at power and access.[1], [2]
Related columns
For more information on this topic, you can read the related columns.
