US ports' import volume to drop to near-pandemic lows in Feb: NRF

In December 2022, the ports handled 1.73 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), a decrease of 2.6 per cent from November and 17.1 per cent from December 2021. This brought the annual total for 2022 to 25.5 million TEU, a decline of 1.2 per cent from the previous annual record.

January numbers have not yet been reported, but Global Port Tracker predicts a decline of 17.6 per cent year over year (YoY). For the rest of the first half of 2023, March is forecast at 1.76 million TEU, down 24.8 per cent YoY, April at 1.87 million TEU, down 17.3 per cent, May at 1.92 million TEU, down 19.9 per cent, and June at 2 million TEU, the first time that imports are expected to be that high since October but down 11.3 per cent from last June.

The first half of 2023 is expected to total 10.9 million TEU, a decline of 19.4 per cent from the first half of 2022.

“With the US economy slowing and consumers worried by rising interest rates and still-high inflation, retailers are importing less merchandise,” NRF vice president for supply chain and customs policy Jonathan Gold said. “February is traditionally a slow month, but these are the lowest numbers we’ve seen in almost three years. Retailers are being cautious as they wait to see how the economy responds to efforts to bring inflation under control.”

“In some ways, 2023 is reminiscent of 2020, when the world’s economies shut down because of the pandemic and no one had a clue where we were headed,” Hackett Associates founder Ben Hackett said. “Cargo volumes are down, and the economy is in a contradiction of rising employment and wages that promise prosperity at the same time high inflation and rising interest rates threaten a recession. The economy is far from shut down, but the degree of uncertainty is very similar.” 

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)