News
Eastbound transpacific container movement from 18 Asian economies to the U.S. decreased 0.3% from a year earlier to 1,147,377 TEUs in June 2013, suffering a very minute year-on-year decline for two months in a row, according to a report released by the Japan Maritime Center (JMC).
Exports from Asia to the U.S. were not as brisk as expected despite some positive signs in the U.S. The positive factors included the real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 0.4% for the second quarter (April-June), which was a year-on-year improvement for the second consecutive term, and the slight increase in consumer spending in June, which was an increase for three straight months.
In the first half (January-June), container throughput totaled 6,632,151 TEUs from the 18 Asian nations to the U.S., growing 1.9% from the corresponding six months of 2012.
Looking at containerized shipments moved from Asia to the U.S. in June by origin, those from China, the leading source of U.S.-bound shipments, rose 0.2% from a year earlier to 753,459 TEUs, according to the JMC report, which was compiled by statistical data from the Port Import/Export Reporting Service (PIERS) of the U.S.
Containers from Southeast Asia hiked 2.6% to a total of 148,165 TEUs, led by those from Vietnam and Indonesia.
On the other hand, those from South Korea went down 7% to 58,073 TEUs and from South Asia, down 0.8% to 56,967 TEUs in total.
Exports from Japan fell 4.1% to 50,804 TEUs, but those from Taiwan climbed 0.5% to 45,545 TEUs.
Meanwhile, westbound containers from the U.S. to Asia enjoyed a slight improvement of 0.6% year on year to 584,192 TEUs in May, the JMC added.
In the first five months (January-May), however, they decreased 0.6% to 2,872,031 TEUs.
