News
With the U.S. retail industry in its annual lull between seasons and plans for a tariff increase on hold, imports at the nation's major retail container ports are expected to drop to their lowest level in almost a year this month, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
U.S. ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 1.89 million TEUs in January, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. That was down 3.7 percent from December following the end of the holiday season but up 7.4 percent year-over-year.
February was estimated at 1.79 million TEUs, up 6.2 percent from February 2018. March is forecast at 1.59 million TEUs, up 3.2 percent year-over-year but the lowest level since 1.63 million TEUs in April 2018. February and March are historically the two slowest shipping months of the year both because retailers are between major shopping seasons and because of factory shutdowns in Asia during the Lunar New Year holiday.
April is forecast at 1.75 million TEUs, up 7 percent year-over-year; May at 1.88 million TEUs, up 3.3 percent; June at 1.88 million TEUs, up 1.7 percent, and July at 1.96 million TEUs, up 2.7 percent.
Imports during 2018 set a new record of 21.8 million TEUs, an increase of 6.2 percent over 2017's previous record of 20.5 million TEUs. The first half of 2019 is expected to total 10.8 million TEUs, up 4.8 percent over the first half of 2018.
