News
The unprecedented surge of imports at retail container ports in the U.S. that began last summer is expected to continue at least through the end of this summer as retailers work to meet increased consumer demand, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
The surge resulted in months of backups at ports, which have faced labor shortages because of COVID-19 infections and equipment shortages because of the volume. The global supply chain continues to be strained by multiple disruptions, including the recent blockage of the Suez Canal. But Hackett Associates Founder Ben Hackett said ports are beginning to catch up.
U.S. ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 1.87 million TEUs in February, the latest month for which final numbers are available. That was down 9.1 percent from January but up 23.7 percent year-over-year and the busiest February since NRF began tracking imports in 2002.
March was projected at 2.07 million TEUs, up 50.7 percent year-over-year, but Hackett cautioned that last year’s swings caused by the pandemic have ''played havoc'' with percentage comparisons. During March 2020, many Asian factories that should have reopened after February's Lunar New Year holiday were still closed, and U.S. businesses were starting to close to avoid spreading the virus.
April is forecast at 1.99 million TEUs, up 23.4 percent year-over-year; May at 2 million TEUs, up 30.6 percent; June at 2.01 million TEUs, up 24.9 percent; July at 2.04 million TEUs, up 6.5 percent, and August at 2.08 million TEUs, down 1.2 percent. The August number would be the first year-over-year decline since last July.
The first half of 2021 is forecast at 11.99 million TEUs, up 26.9 percent from the same period in 2020, which experienced a major decline in imports due to COVID-19. Imports saw a total of 22 million TEUs in 2020, up 1.9 percent from 2019’s 21.6 million TEU and beating the previous record of 21.8 million TEUs recorded in 2018.
