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Container Traffic Rising in June
June 17,
2012 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Delivery on June 18, 2012
Import cargo volume at U.S. retail container ports should rise in June according to the latest Global Port Tracker report.
Port Tracker is released monthly by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
In addition to an expected 4.8 percent in June in-bound container volume compared with the same month last year, the report anticipates continued year-over-year increases into the holiday season shipping cycle.
Retail sales have seen 22 straight months of year-over-year sales increases, and these import projections suggest retailers should see growth into the two-year mark and beyond, NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said. Cargo numbers dont correlate directly into sales numbers, but they are an indicator of how much retailers think they can sell.
U.S. ports followed by Global Port Tracker handled 1.23 million 20-foot Equivalent Units in April, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. That was up 3.9 percent from March and 1.5 percent from April 2011.
May was estimated at 1.29 million TEU, up 0.5 percent from a year ago, and June is forecast at 1.31 million TEU, up 4.8 percent from the same time last year. July is forecast at 1.36 million TEU, up 2.5 percent; August at 1.42 million TEU, up 7.3 percent; September at 1.45 million TEU, up 9 percent, and October at 1.53 million TEU, up 19.9 percent over unusually low numbers last year.
The first half of 2012 should total 7.3 million TEU, up 2 percent from the same period last year. The total for 2011 was 14.8 million TEU, up 0.4 percent from 2010s 14.75 million TEU. NRF projects 2012 retail sales will grow 3.4 percent to $2.53 trillion.
Consumer demand for durables has been weak for quite some time and dropped further in May, yet at the same time consumer confidence is at its highest level since 2007, Hackett Associates founder Ben Hackett said. Confused? So is the average consumer.
Global Port Tracker, which is produced for NRF by the consulting firm Hackett Associates, covers the U.S. ports of Long Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma on the West Coast; New York/New Jersey, Hampton Roads, Charleston and Savannah on the East Coast, and Houston on the Gulf Coast.