News
Import cargo volumes at the nation's major container ports are expected to drop to nearly their lowest levels since the beginning of the pandemic this month, according to the Global Port Tracker report released recently by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates.
U.S. ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 1.73 million TEUs of containers in December, down 2.6% from November and down 17.1% from December 2021. That brought 2022 to an annual total of 25.5 million TEUs, down 1.2% from the annual record of 25.8 million TEU set in 2021.
Ports have not yet reported January numbers, but Global Port Tracker projected the month at 1.78 million TEUs, down 17.6% year over year. February is forecast at 1.57 million TEUs, down 25.6% from the same month last year for the slowest month since 1.53 million TEUs in May 2020, when many factories in Asia and most U.S. stores were closed by the pandemic. Since the beginning of the pandemic, only the 1.51 million TEUs recorded in February 2020 and 1.37 million TEUs in March 2020 have been lower.
March is forecast at 1.76 million TEUs, down 24.8% year over year, April at 1.87 million TEUs, down 17.3% and May at 1.92 million TEUs, down 19.9%. June is forecast at two million TEUs, the first time imports are expected to be that high since October but down 11.3% from last June. Those numbers would bring the first half of 2023 to 10.9 million TEUs, down 19.4% from the first half of 2022.
