News
Containerized shipments from Asia's 18 countries and territories to the U.S. made a turnaround in December 2009 for the first time in 27 months, with a year-on-year increase of 2.5% on volume of 938,000 TEUs, according to the Japan Maritime Center (JMC). Westbound. Box traffic from the U.S. to Asia jumped 46.9% from a year earlier to 536,000 TEUs in December, the largest volume in 2009.
For the entire year, eastbound volume fell 14.8% from the previous year to 11,341,000 TEUs while westbound box traffic fell slightly by 1.2% to 5,986,000 TEUs.
On the eastbound trade, exports from China continued to account for an overwhelming share of 65.5% with volume of 7,434,000 TEUs, down 13.4% from the previous year. Shipments from Hong Kong also dropped 25.3% to 437,000 TEUs, causing combined volume from China and Hong Kong to decline 14.2% on year to 7,870,000 TEUs. Despite the decline, the combined share stood at as high as 69.4%.
Containerized cargo from Japan to the U.S. tumbled 30.7% to 515,000 TEUs due to a plunge in vehicle-related exports while those from South Korea fell 12.8% to 529,000 TEUs, outstripping Japan in yearly volume for the first time. Containers from Taiwan slumped 20.4% from a year before to 429,000 TEUs.
Exports from ASEAN counties suffered a relatively smaller decline of 10.3% with total volume of 1,445,000 TEUs. Among them, Vietnam was the largest trade partner in the region for the U.S. with containerized exports of 405,000 TEUs, down 2.6% year on year.
