News
Import cargo volume at the U.S.'s major retail container ports has begun its annual climb toward summer levels but is expected to be largely flat when compared with last year's record high numbers, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released recently by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.]
Ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 1.54 million TEUs in February, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. That was up 3.7 percent from January and a dramatic 28.9 percent from unusually low figures in February 2015, when a new contract with dockworkers ended a near-shutdown at West Coast ports.
March was estimated at 1.35 million TEUs, down 22.1 percent from the flood of traffic seen last year as the new contract released a backlog of cargo. April is forecast at 1.5 million TEUs, down 0.8 percent from last year; May at 1.58 million TEUs, down 2.1 percent; June at 1.56 million TEUs, down 0.6 percent; July at 1.61 million TEUs, down 0.5 percent, and August also at 1.61 million TEUs, down 3.9 percent.
The first half of 2016 is expected to total 9 million TEUs, up 1.8 percent from the same period in 2015. Total volume for 2015 was 18.2 million TEUs, up 5.4 percent from 2014.
