Imports

On a year-to-date basis, April’s 15% decrease was preceded by an 11% January decrease, a 20% February decrease, and a 23% March decrease. Home furnishings imports fell 33% in April, compared to a 45% drop-off in March, and household appliances and consumer electronics saw matching 13% decreases. Textiles and apparel were off 37% annually, compared to a 37% March decrease.

Descartes said that U.S. container import volumes saw a 9.0% increase, to 2,020,197 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units), from March to April, which topped a 6.9% increase, from February to March. The firm explained that U.S. container import volumes were paced by what it said was a surge in imports from China. Those imports alone posted a 26.7% increase over March.

For March, the most recent month for which data is available, Port Tracker noted that import volumes, for the ports covered in the report, came in at 1.62 million TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units), marking a 5% gain over February—which saw its lowest volume in a month going back to May 2020’s 1.53 million TEU, when several Asian-based factories and U.S.-based stores were closed because of the pandemic—while posting a 30.6% annual decline. This tally trailed a previous March estimate, of 1.68...

A theme within freight transportation, supply chain, and logistics circles, which is always among the key “top of mind” themes, is the state of the economy, from various perspectives, whether it be, in our case, a freight or macroeconomic perspective.

LM Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently caught up with Bart De Muynck, Chief Industry Officer, for Chicago-based supply chain visibility services provider project44 about shifts in global supply chain patterns, at a time when economic uncertainty remains firmly intact, in the form of things like still-high inflation and decreased consumer demand coupled with signs of supply chain stabilization such as reduced port congestion and lessened logistics bottlenecks on a global bas

In the report, Descartes stated that U.S. container volumes—at 1,853,705 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units)—saw a 6.9% sequential increase in March, but fell 27.5% annually and up 4.2% compared to March 2019, a full year ahead of the onset of the pandemic.

Total March volume—at 623,233 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units)—came in just over the port’s initial expectations for the month. While this marked a 35% annual decline, POLA Executive Director Gene Seroka said that it was up against the highest-volume March on record for POLA.

United States-bound import volumes are pegged to see gains through the summer months, albeit at below levels seen during the pandemic, according to the new edition of the Port Tracker report, which was issued today by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and maritime consultancy Hackett Associates.

For January, the most recent month for which data is available, Port Tracker noted that import volumes, for the ports covered in the report, came in at 1.81 million TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units), for a 4.4% increase compared to December and a 16.5% annual decrease.

For the month of February, Descartes observed that U.S. container volumes—at 1,734,272 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units)—were off 16.2% compared to January, while falling 25.0% annually, and down 0.3% compared to February 2019 prior to the pandemic.

For the month of January, Descartes noted that U.S. container volumes—at 2,068,943 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units)—were up 7.2% compared to December’s 1,929,032 TEU, which were down 1.3% compared to November, and its largest December to January increase in the last six years. While volume saw a sequential gain, they were down 16.1% annually, with the caveat that this tally was only 0.3% below a pre-pandemic January 2019. The report also noted that even though the Lunar New Year was in January, the subsequent...

A key takeaway of the report highlighted that December U.S. container import volumes saw a mild decline, down 1.3% compared to November, at 1,929,032 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units), with a 21.3% annual decline. What’s more, December’s tally came in 1.3% ahead of December 2019, prior to the onset of the pandemic.

For November, the most recent month for which data is available, import volume for the ports covered in the report, came in at 1.78 million TEU, an 11.3% decline compared to October and a 15.8% annual decline. This represented the lowest monthly tally since February 2021, when it came in at 1.87 million TEU, the lone month in more than two years to come in below 2 million TEU.

Total October POLA volume—at 678,429 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units)—fell 25% annually, and total October POLB volume fell16.6% annually, to 658,428 TEU.

For September, the most recent month for which data is available, import volume—at 2.03 million TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units)—fell 10.2% compared to August and were off 4.9% annually.