US container import volume increased by 7.9 per cent month on month (MoM) in January this year to 2.273 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs)—the largest MoM growth in the first month of the year in the last seven years, according to the February Global Shipping Report for logistics and supply chain professionals released by Descartes SystemsGroup, which offers cloud-based logistics and supply chain solutions.

TEU volume was higher by 9.9 per cent compared to January 2023, and up by 9.6 per cent from pre-pandemic January 2019.

A 14.9 per cent rise in imports from China fuelled the gains with the Ports of Los Angeles (77,085 TEUs) and Long Beach (48,054 TEUs) getting the lion’s share of it.

The combination of the Panama drought and Middle East conflict is beginning to affect transit times as delays at the top East and Gulf Coast ports increased considerably.

The report shows accelerated container import volume amid signs that global supply chain performance could be hit throughout this year because of conditions at the Panama and Suez Canals and upcoming labour negotiations.

For the top 10 US ports, container import volume in January this year was significantly up YoY by 149,906 TEUs, or 8.4 per cent. The ports of Houston (minus 6,042 TEUs) and Charleston (minus 4,331 TEUs) had the greatest decreases.

Chinese imports in January also significantly increased, by 14.9 per cent YoY to 905,173 TEUs in the month, considerably closing the gap (now minus 9.8 per cent) from the August 2022 high, Descartes said in a release.

For the top 10 countries of origin, US container import volume in January this year increased by 9.6 per cent MoM, or by 146,240 TEUs, with China having the greatest volume increase (117,084 TEUs) and Germany (minus 2,851 TEUs) having the largest volume decrease.

Overall port transit delays in January increased across the top ports, with the exception of the Port of Los Angeles, which showed a slight decrease.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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