Descartes’ December Global Shipping Report highlights modest U.S.-bound import growth

The new edition of the December Global Shipping Report, which issued this week by Waterloo, Ontario-based Descartes, a provider of logistics based on-demand, software-as-a-service offerings, pointed to modest growth for United States-bound import volumes, again driven by East and Gulf Coast port volume declines.

This is the 29th edition of the Global Shipping Report, going back to its debut in August 2021.

From November to December, Descartes reported that U.S.-bound container import volumes eked out 0.4% increase, to 2,107,012 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units), topping December 2022’s 1,929,032 TEU tally by 9.2% and was up 10.6% compared to pre-pandemic December 2019’s 1,904,828 TEU.

Chris Jones, EVP Industry Descartes, the report’s author, wrote that the top East and Gulf Coast ports saw increases, while the top West Coast ports saw decreases.  

“The Panama drought did not appear to impact U.S. container import volume at East and Gulf Coast ports in December, but port delay times increased particularly at Gulf Coast ports,” he noted. “The Middle East shipping attacks escalated in December, but container import volumes do not appear to have impacted December. The January update of the logistics metrics Descartes is tracking shows container import volume consistent with seasonal import patterns but signs that global supply chain performance will be under pressure in 2024 because of the conditions at the Panama and Suez Canals and upcoming labor negotiations.”

For the top 10 U.S. ports, Descartes found that U.S. container volume saw a slight increase, up 5,415 TEU, or 0.3%, from November to December, with six ports posting gains, led by the Port of Houston with a 29.5%, or 37,865 TEU increase, followed by the Port of Charleston, at 6,207 TEU, or a 6.3% increase. On the other end, the Port of Long Beach (29,635 TEU or down 8.5%) and the Port of Los Angeles (20,578 TEU or down 5.3%) saw the biggest decreases.

For coastal volume share, Descartes reported that share was paced by the top East and Gulf Coast ports, and driven by strong volume gains at the Port of Houston and the aforementioned decreases for both the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. And in terms of total import container volume, Descartes said that, from November to December, share for top East and Gulf Coast ports headed up 2.9%, to 44.9%, while West Coast ports were down 3.4%, to 39.7%. What’s more, when comparing the top 10 ports to smaller ports, share for the top 10 ports in December slipped by 0.6%, to 84.5, compared to November.

For the top 10 countries of origin, Descartes reported that U.S. container import volume in December saw a 0.5% increase, or 8,179 TEU, over November, with South Korea leading the way, up 6.5%, or 6,414 TEU, and India seeing the largest decline, down 8.6%, or 7,806 TEU.

Port transit delays largely were up in December, with the top West Coast ports all up, despite large volume declines at the ports of Los Angeles (from 4.6 in November to 5.0 in December) and Long Beach (from 3.9 in November to 4.7 in December).

“December was a solid month and it’s fair to say that U.S. import container volume over the year was beyond what the market anticipated last January,” observed Descartes’ Jones. “The impact of the drought in Panama did not appear to impact Gulf Coast ports volumes in December, but transit times did grow considerably in the region. Now we have the conflict in the Middle East affecting transit through the Suez Canal and U.S import container import volumes could be impacted starting in January.”