News
Estimates show that imports at major U.S. retail container ports dropped to their lowest level in five years in March, and imports are projected to remain significantly below normal levels through early summer as the coronavirus pandemic continues, according to the Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
U.S. ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 1.51 million TEUs in February, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. That was down 17 percent from January and down 6.8 percent year-over-year.
February numbers are normally lower than January because of annual factory shutdowns in China for Lunar
New Year celebrations. But the shutdowns lasted longer than usual and continued into March because of the coronavirus outbreak. While actual numbers for March are not yet available, estimates show that imports plunged to 1.27 million TEUs, down 21.3 percent year-over-year and the lowest level seen since 1.21 million TEUs in February 2015 during a labor dispute that caused slowdowns at West Coast ports that winter.
April is forecast at 1.44 million TEUs, down 17.6 percent year-over-year; May at 1.48 million TEUs, down 20.1 percent; June at 1.41 million TEUs, down 21.4 percent; July at 1.61 million TEUs, down 18.2 percent, and August at 1.72 million TEUs, down 12.5 percent.
Before the coronavirus began to have an effect on imports, February through May had been forecast at a total of 6.9 million TEUs but is now expected to total 5.7 million TEUs, a drop of 17.3 percent. As recently as last month, monthly numbers had been expected to hit the 2 million TEUs mark beginning in May. The last time monthly totals fell below 1.5 million TEUs was in February 2017.
The first half of 2020 is forecast to total 8.93 million TEUs, down 15.1 percent from the same period last year. Before the extent of the pandemic was known, the first half of the year was forecast at 10.47 million TEUs.
