News
A total of 1,299,411 TEUs of containers were exported to the U.S. from 10 Asian countries and regions in December 2017, which increased 6.2% from a year earlier to set a new monthly record, according to a report recently released by American research firm Descartes DataMyne. Eastbound containers reached an all-time high on a full-year scale as well, totaling 15,611,506 TEUs last year, which expand 6.5%.
Looking more closely at annual container movement by origin, exports from China swelled 8% to 9,709,959 TEUs, holding the largest share of the pie, said the report, which had been compiled from Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) and bill of lading (B/L) data provided by the U.S. Customs and Boarder Protection (CBP). Ranked second were those from South Korea, which increased 4.1% to 1,536,525 TEUs. The third largest source was Taiwan, but quantitatively, they sank 5.8% to 879,654 TEUs. Exports from Vietnam soared 34.1% to 682,199 TEUs, helping the Southeast Asian economy finished in fourth place. Vietnam was followed by Hong Kong, which exported 794,959 TEUs, rising 2.7%. Those from Singapore plunged 12% to 632,212 TEUs, but it managed to come in sixth place. Japan was the seventh greatest exporter of containers destined to the U.S., which hiked 1.8% to 538,164 TEUs. Containers from Thailand were massive, jumping 24.5% to 319,007 TEUs and finished in eighth. Ninth place was taken by those from India, which surged 10.5% to 355,398 TEUs. At the bottom of the top 10 list were containers from Malaysia, which climbed 3.4% to 163,429 TEUs.
By commodity, meanwhile, the Descartes DataMyne report indicated that furniture accounted for the biggest part of the products the 10 Asian economies exported to the U.S. in 2017, swelling 12.3% to 2,665,661 TEUs. Machinery was the second leading item exported to America, hiking 8.9% to 1,388,652 TEUs. Ranked third were electronic devices, which increased 2.4% to 1,206,320 TEU, while plastics extended 4.7% to 762,787 TEUs and finished in fourth place. In contrast, auto-related products declined 0.7 % to 722,026 TEUs, coming in fifth.
