News
In 2010, the volume of containerized shipments exported to the U.S. from Japan and 17 other Asian economies increased 15.4% from a year earlier to 13.806 million TEUs, which was nearly as much as its 2008 total, according to the Japan Maritime Center.
The Tokyo-based organization, which on March 15 released a report on 2010 container trade on the Asia/U.S. trade from statistical data provided by PIERS of the U.S., said that imports from the U.S. to Asia rose 4.3% to 6.249 million TEUs, breaking their previous record.
The center added that future container movement has become unclear owing to, among other reasons, the ongoing political instabilities in Middle East countries and the recent devastating earthquake in Japan’s Tohoku area.
Looking at 2010’s eastbound container traffic from Asia to the U.S. by country of origin, exports from China went up year on year for the first time in three years, enjoying the largest share of the pie.
Quantitatively, they surged 14.4% to 8.504 million TEUs ? thanks to improvements in furniture and other household goods, garments and general electrical machinery ? almost regaining their 2008 level.
Those from Japan also rose for the first time in three years, soaring 17% to 603,000 TEUs.
Due mainly to improvements in auto-related items, they were on the way to making up for the decline they suffered when the world was hit hard by the recent financial crisis.
In terms of volume, however, they performed very poorly, and the throughput was the second lowest figure to what they totaled in 2009.
Meanwhile, containers from South Korea swelled 27.6% to 675,000 TEUs.
Led by increases in general electrical machinery and auto-related commodities, they hit an all-time high since PIERS began compiling statistics.
Those from Taiwan jumped 15.5% to 495,000 TEUs, but focusing on the second half of 2010 (July to December), they fell below those from Vietnam for the first time in history.
The combined volume of exported containers from the ASEAN nations climbed 11.9% to 1.617 million TEUs, while those from southern Asia totaled 639,000 TEUs, which was a growth of 15.9%.
