COPENHAGEN, July 2 (Reuters) - Maersk

estimates companies pay effective U.S. import tariffs of on

average 21% relative to container load, the Danish shipping

group said on Wednesday, less than half the rate before

Washington paused its sweeping tariffs in April.

Maersk said in a regular global market update that at its

peak, shortly after April 2 when President Donald Trump unveiled

tariffs against nearly all U.S. trading partners, the average

effective rate was 54%. Its estimate was based on the group's

container-weighted effective average tariff rate metric.

More than a dozen major U.S. trading partners are rushing to

reach agreements with the Trump administration by a July 9

deadline to avoid import tariffs jumping to higher levels.

In April, Trump put a 90-day pause on the stiff levies he

had announced just a week earlier that sent global financial

markets into a tailspin.

"The whole world is on tariff watch in July and August where

various deadlines for potential trade deals with the U.S.

expire," Maersk said.

"The outcome of these negotiations will of course colour

global trade and consumer sentiment in the months to come," it

added.

The company said it had seen robust container demand growth

in the first half of the year.

"What played out was not completely unexpected, and we did

see customers advance orders ahead of the tariff announcements,"

it said.

Maersk has seen many of its large U.S. customers reduce

import dependency on China in recent years.

"Many apparel and fashion customers have now reached

single-digit China dependency," it said.

"Other commodities like home improvements have a

significantly higher level of Chinese manufacturing due to the

nature of the goods," it added.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Louise Rasmussen;

Editing by Anna Ringstrom and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)