April Container Traffic to Rise

April 5, 2010  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in sourcing/importing on April 6, 2010

Import volume at major U.S. container ports should rise 8 percent in April compared with the same month last year, according to the Global Port Tracker report released Monday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

"Retail sales are starting to improve and retailers are importing merchandise in the quantities they need to meet that demand," said NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold. "We expect these numbers to continue to climb as merchants and their customers move away from the recession and back toward normal shopping habits."

U.S. ports handled 1.01 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) in February, the latest month for which actual numbers are available. That was down 6 percent from January as shipping hit its traditional slow point for the year but up 20 percent from the unusually low numbers seen during February 2009. It was also the third month in a row to show year-over-year improvement after December broke a 28-month streak of year-over-year monthly declines.

March was estimated at 1.02 million TEU, a 6 percent increase over last year as spring products began to head for store shelves. April is forecast at 1.07 million TEU, up 8 percent from last year; May at 1.12 million TEU, up 7 percent€™ June at 1.18 million TEU, up 17 percent; July at 1.24 million TEU, up 12 percent; and August at 1.32 million TEU, up 15 percent.

The first half of 2010 is expected to total 6.5 million TEU, up 10 percent. Imports for 2009 totaled 12.7 million TEU, down 17 percent from 2008's 15.2 million TEU and the lowest since the 12.5 million TEU reported in 2003. The forecast for first-half growth is down from the 17 percent increase projected a month ago as more recent data becomes available.

"Port volumes have begun to rebound and we expect growth to continue going forward," Hackett Associates Founder Ben Hackett said. "Retailers were maintaining lean inventories during the recession but are carefully building back up."