News
Container exports from Japan to the U.S. amounted to 51,759 TEUs in January (based on volumes at ports of origin), down 3.6%, their first year-on-year contraction in four months, according to Descartes Datamyne statistics announced yesterday. The total consisted of 36,108 TEUs of direct shipments, up 7.5%, and 15,651 TEUs of those transshipped on the way, down 22.1%.
As for direct shipments from Japan to the U.S., 13,718 TEUs were from Tokyo, up 3.6%; 11,331 TEUs from Nagoya, up 16.1%; 7,948 TEUs from Osaka, up 2.5%; 2,545 TEUs from Yokohama, up 19.5%; and 268 TEUs from Shimizu, up 5.5%.
Transshipment (T/S) containers accounted for 30.2% of the total, down by 7.3 percentage points from December 2024. Containers transshipped in South Korea plunged 26.5% year on year to 10,373 TEUs, but those transshipped in Taiwan picked up 13.2% to 2,137 TEUs and in China, up 38.3% to 1,554 TEUs.
Unveiled on the same day were container imports from the U.S. to Japan in December 2024, which shrank 0.5% from a year earlier to 53,726 TEUs (based on volumes at ports of destination).
Direct shipments came to 31,916 TEUs, down 27.6%, and those transshipped on the way, 21,810 TEUs, up 120.8%. Of T/S containers, South Korea was responsible for 5,526 TEUs, up 2.7%; Canada, 5,128 TEUs, up 1,835.1%; Panama, 3,594 TEUs, up 12,293.1%; Taiwan, 1,981 TEUs, down 27.7%; and China, 1,749 TEUs, up 560%.
In 2024, container imports from the U.S. to Japan jumped 19.4% to 644,740 TEUs, exceeding the 600,000-TEU line for the first time since 2020 and pre-pandemic levels. By destination, throughput increased at Tokyo and Yokohama, which held a combined share of nearly 90%.
