Tariffs have triggered a major supply chain reset, with companies diversifying sourcing and rethinking their logistics networks, a new survey by STG finds. The findings land as shippers and forwarders move from short-term rate management to structural decisions about where goods originate and how they move.

The survey's core message is blunt. Firms are no longer treating tariffs as a passing cost headache. They're rebuilding the architecture underneath their supply chains — supplier bases, routing, network design — rather than simply absorbing duties or passing them to customers.

What does this change for shippers?

For shippers, the practical shift is sourcing. Instead of leaning on a single low-cost origin, companies are spreading orders across multiple countries, which reduces exposure to any one tariff regime. That divergence carries real operational weight: new origins mean new lanes, new transit times, new customs regimes and new compliance work.

The survey also points to a rethink of logistics networks themselves. Warehouse placement, port pairs and inventory positioning all come back on the table when the cost basis of an origin market changes. Diversification sounds tidy in a board deck. On the ground it means longer, more fragmented chains — and forwarders who can stitch multi-origin flows together become more valuable, not less.

For carriers, the consequence is a redistribution of volumes rather than a collapse. Trade lanes that served concentrated sourcing patterns lose density; emerging lanes gain it, often before regular capacity follows. That mismatch between shifted demand and static capacity is where rate volatility typically breeds.

Why this is structural, not cyclical

There's a mechanism here worth spelling out. Tariff pressure changes the landed-cost equation at the origin level. Once the gap between two sourcing markets widens past a threshold, the fixed costs of qualifying a new supplier — audits, tooling, lead-time buffer — get justified. Each company that crosses that threshold locks in its shift, which means volumes don't snap back when a single duty headline changes.

That's the reset the STG survey captures. The decisions being made now are semi-permanent. They reset lanes, reset carrier relationships and reset where inventory sits.

For forwarders and 3PLs, the commercial consequence cuts both ways. Diversified sourcing multiplies the number of origin points they must manage, which raises service intensity — and, where they can execute it, pricing power. But it also spreads volumes thinner across more lanes, and thin lanes are harder to buy capacity on.

What comes next

The survey signals the direction of travel: diversification and network redesign are under way, not being debated. Shippers who haven't yet re-costed their origin mix against current tariff schedules should expect their competitors' networks to keep shifting underneath them — with consequences for rates and capacity on the lanes everyone is suddenly using.