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U.S. container imports from 10 major Asian countries and regions amounted to 1.65 million TEUs in January (based on volumes at ports of origin), which went up 15.6% year on year, according to Descartes Datamyne, which referred to Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) and bill-of-lading (B/L) data provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). U.S. imports totaled 2.27 million TEUs, up 9.9% year on year.
Totaling 979,359 TEUs, up 19.9% year on year, imports from China accounted for the largest part. Ranked second were those from South Korea, which jumped 22% to 192,399 TEUs, while those from Vietnam finished in third place, swelling 21.6% to 153,949 TEUs. They were followed by containers from Taiwan, which improved 4.3% to 77,043 TEUs. In contrast, those from Singapore shrank 7.6% to 61,871 TEUs at the bottom of the top five. Coming in eighth, those from Japan soared 42% to 33,779 TEUs.
Looking at fluctuations in container imports to the U.S. from China and four Southeast Asian nations—i.e., Vietnam, India and Thailand and Malaysia before and after the coronavirus pandemic, containers from China, including those from Hong Kong and transshipped in South Korea, amounted to 10.87 million TEUs in 2019, which waned 0.2% to 10.85 million TEUs in 2023. Imports from the four Southeast Asian nations aggregated 2.19 million TEUs in 2019 but surged 43.6% to 3.14 million TEUs in 2023.
