News
Year-over-year import cargo volume at U.S.'s major retail container ports is expected to continue to rise during most of the first half of 2015 despite significant congestion still impacting West Coast ports, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
Ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 1.39 million TEUs in November, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. That was down 10.7 percent from October as holiday merchandise wound down but up 3.5 percent from November 2013. December was estimated at 1.35 million TEUs, up 2.7 percent from the year before.
Those numbers brought 2014 to a preliminary total of 17.2 million TEUs, an increase of 6 percent over 2013's 16.2 million TEUs. Imports in 2012 totaled 15.8 million TEUs.
January is forecast at 1.39 million TEUs, up 1.1 percent from January 2014, February at 1.3 million TEUs, up 4.8 percent from last year; March also at 1.3 million TEUs, down 0.5 percent; April at 1.43 million TEUs, the same as last year; and May at 1.49 million TEUs, up 0.6 percent.
