News
With retail sales continuing to grow, imports at the U.S.'s major retail container ports are expected to remain strong this month after setting three new records this summer, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
Ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 1.9 million TEUs in July, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. That was up 2.8 percent from June and up 5.6 percent year-over-year.
August was estimated at 1.92 million TEUs, up 4.8 percent year-over-year. September is forecast at 1.83 million TEUs, up 2.4 percent; October at 1.88 million TEUs, up 5 percent; November at 1.79 million TEUs, up 1.7 percent, and December also at 1.79 million TEUs, up 3.6 percent. January 2019 is forecast at 1.77 million TEUs, up 0.4 percent over January 2018.
August was the third month in a row to set a new record for the number of containers imported during a single month, following July's 1.9 million TEUs and June's 1.85 million TEUs. The previous record of 1.83 million TEUs was set in August 2017.
The first half of 2018 totaled 10.3 million TEUs, an increase of 5.1 percent over the first half of 2017. The total for 2018 is expected to reach 21.4 million TEUs, an increase of 4.4 percent over last year's record 20.5 million TEUs.
