News
After months of record-setting volume as U.S. retailers stocked up for a busy holiday season, imports at the U.S. major container ports should be essentially flat this month compared with the same time last year, according to the Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
Ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 1.76 million TEUs in September, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. That was a 2.3 percent decrease from the record-setting 1.8 million TEUs recorded in August, but still a 10.5 percent increase year-over-year.
October was estimated at 1.75 million TEU s, up 4.9 percent from last year. While not records, the September and October numbers were among only six times that monthly volume has hit 1.7 million TEUs or higher since NRF began tracking imports in 2000.
November is forecast at 1.63 million TEUs, down 0.5 percent from last year, and December is forecast at 1.6 million TEUs, up 2 percent.
The total for 2017 is expected to come to 20 million TEUs, topping last year's previous record of 18.8 million TEUs by 6.3 percent.
