News
The U.S.’s major retail container ports have begun to catch up with the backlog of cargo seen over the past several months, but could experience another surge this summer, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates.
U.S. ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 2.11 million TEUs in February, the latest month for which final numbers are available. That was down 2.3 percent from January but up 13 percent year-over-year.
Ports have not yet reported March numbers, but Global Port Tracker projected the month at 2.27 million TEUs, unchanged from the same month last year. April is forecast at 2.13 million TEUs, down 1.1 percent from last year, and May at 2.21 million TEUs, down 5.3 percent year-over-year.
Increases are expected to resume in June, which is forecast at 2.26 million TEUs, up 5.2 percent year-over-year. July is forecast at 2.32 million TEUs, up 5.6 percent, and August at 2.35 million TEUs, a 3.3 percent year-over-year increase that would set a new record for the number of containers imported in a single month since NRF began tracking imports in 2002. The current record is 2.33 million TEUs in May 2021.
The first six months of 2022 are expected to total 13.1 million TEUs, up 2.5 percent year-over-year. Imports for all of 2021 totaled 25.8 million TEUs, a 17.4 percent increase over 2020’s previous annual record of 22 million TEUs.
