Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to increase 7.3 percent this month over the same time last year as retailers stock up for the busy back-to-school season, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates on Wednesday.
Ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 1.61 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEU) in May, the most recent month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. That was up 6.2 percent from April and 8.2 percent from May of last year. One TEU is one 20-foot-long cargo container or its equivalent.
June was estimated at 1.56 million TEU, up 5.5 percent from last year. July is forecast at 1.6 million TEU, up 7.3 percent year-over-year; August at 1.6 million TEU, up 5.5 percent; September at 1.63 million TEU, up 2.4 percent; October at 1.61 million TEU, up 3.5 percent, and November at 1.5 million TEU, up 7.5 percent.
The first half of this year was estimated at 8.8 million TEU, up 6.4 percent over the same period last year.
Ben Hackett, founder of Hackett Associates, says the increases in imports are in line with other improving economic indicators.
“U.S. consumer spending recorded its largest increase in nearly six years in May, suggesting that the level of confidence about the future has improved,” Hackett says. “This is very positive news.”
West coast ports are projected to be recovering from the congestion caused by a recently settled contract dispute. A new five-year contract between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union was ratified in May.
