News
Eastbound container shipments to the U.S. from 18 Asian countries and regions amounted to 1.151 million TEUs in June 2010, an increase of 27.6 percent from the corresponding month of 2009, according to the Japan Maritime Center.
They exceeded 1.1 million TEUs for the second consecutive month ? or from May, when they achieved the highest year-on-year growth since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008.
On the other hand, westbound containers from the U.S. to Asia decreased 4.2 percent to 498,000 TEUs, failing to reach 500,000 TEUs for the first time in four months.
The preliminary figures, which were compiled by the Japan Maritime Center from Customs date released by PIERS of the U.S., indicated that container movement from Asia to America registered double-digit growth for three months in a row in line with the recovery of the U.S. economy.
However, containers from the U.S. to Asia were not brisk, suffering from a year-on-year decrease for two straight months, as paper and scrap metal, both of which are leading items on the westbound route, were sluggish.
For the first six months (from January to June) of 2010, eastbound containers rose 16.6% from a year earlier to 6.091 million TEUs and westbound containers, 6.7% to 3.051 million TEUs.
