According to the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates’ monthly Global Port Tracker, import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is returning to normal levels as officials prepare to count votes on ratification of a new West Coast labor agreement that ended months of uncertainty.
The Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) tentatively agreed on a five-year contract in February. While ILWU leadership has recommended that members vote for ratification, votes won’t be counted until May 22. The lack of a contract and operational issues led to crisis-level congestion at West Coast ports after the previous agreement expired last July.
Ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled a record-high 1.73 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEU) in March, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. Driven up by a sudden surge of backlogged cargo from vessels that were sitting at anchor waiting to be discharged after the labor dispute ended, the number was up 44.9 percent from February and 33.1 percent from March of last year. One TEU is one 20-foot-long cargo container or its equivalent.
April was estimated at 1.55 million TEU, up 8.1 percent from last year. May is forecast at 1.56 million TEU, up 5.4 percent; June at 1.53 million TEU, up 3.7 percent; July at 1.57 million TEU, up 5.1 percent; August at 1.58 million TEU, up 3.9 percent, and September at 1.6 million TEU, up 1.1 percent.
The first half of this year is forecast at 8.8 million TEU, an increase of 6 percent over the same period last year. The increases in volume are coming as ship owners are launching an excessive number of large new vessels, which could lead to a price war on shipping rates, says Ben Hackett, founder of Hackett Associates.
