US Imports Climb Ahead of Holiday Season
Photo: Port of Los Angeles
Jon Gold (Photo: NRF)
Retailers eying the approaching holiday season is expected to spur a 1.2 percent increase in import cargo volume at the United States’ major retail container ports month over the same time last year as season, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates.
“After supply chain worries earlier this year, inventories are plentiful this fall,” NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said. “Shoppers should have no worries about finding what they’re looking for as they begin their holiday shopping.”
Ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 1.62 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) in July, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. That was up 2.9 percent from June and 8.1 percent from July 2014.
Global Port Tracker covers the U.S. ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma on the West Coast, and New York/New Jersey, Hampton Roads, Charleston, Savannah, Port Everglades and Miami on the East Coast, as well as Houston on the Gulf Coast.
August was estimated at 1.6 million TEU, up 5.5 percent from 2014. September is forecast at 1.61 million TEU, up 1.2 percent from last year; October at 1.62 million TEU, up 3.8 percent; November at 1.5 million TEU, up 7.9 percent, and December at 1.44 million TEU, down 0.2 percent.
Those numbers would bring 2015 to a total of 18.2 million TEU, up 5.4 percent from last year. The first half of 2015 totaled 8.9 million TEU, up 6.5 percent over the same period last year.
January 2016 is forecast at 1.44 million TEU, up 16.9 percent from weak numbers seen a year earlier just before West Coast dockworkers agreed on a new contract that ended a months-long labor dispute.
Hackett Associates Founder Ben Hackett said economists have been watching a “stubbornly high” inventory-to-sales ratio this summer, but the cause appears to be the flood of cargo that came after the new West Coast dockworkers’ contract was signed rather than weakness in demand, he said.
