Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Container Volume Will Creep up in December
December 10,
2013 by in Industry, Sourcing / Importing 
Import volume at the nation’s major retail container ports should grow 1.8 percent in December over the same month last year for an increase of 2.3 percent over 2012, according to the latest Global Port Tracker report.
Hackett Associates compiles the monthly report on import activity for the National Retail Federation.
“Imports have seen good growth over last year and retailers are well-stocked as the holiday season continues,” NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said. “Holiday merchandise has made it from the ships to the shelves and the rest is up to the shoppers.”
The cargo numbers come as NRF predicts that this year’s holiday sales will grow 3.9 percent over last year to a total of $602.1 billion. Cargo import figures do not correlate directly with sales because they count only the number of cargo containers, not the value of the merchandise inside them, but are an indicator of retailers’ sales expectations.
August, September and October are the months when most of the holiday season’s merchandise is brought into the country. The 4.35 million cargo containers handled during those months combined represented a 4.3 percent increase over last year and accounted for 26.8 percent of all retail imports for the entire year.
U.S. ports followed by Global Port Tracker handled 1.43 million 20-Foot Equivalent Units in October, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. That was down 0.4 percent from September as the peak shipping cycle wound down but up 6.4 percent from October 2012.
November was estimated at 1.33 million TEU, up 3.6 percent from last year. December is forecast at 1.31 million TEU, up 1.8 percent from last year. January 2014 is forecast at 1.35 million TEU, up 3.3 percent from January 2013; February at 1.18 million TEU, down 7.8 percent from last year; March at 1.32 million TEU, up 15.9 percent; and April at 1.38 million TEU, up 6.6 percent.
The total for 2013 is forecast at 16.2 million TEU, up 2.3 percent from 2012’s 15.8 million TEU. The first six months of 2013 totaled 7.8 million TEU, up 1.2 percent from the first half of 2012.
“The U.S. economy appears to have found a growth spurt,” Hackett Associates Founder Ben Hackett said, citing estimated third-quarter gross domestic product growth of 3.6 percent. “The paradox is that consumer spending remains very cautious and does not come anywhere near the expansion of GDP. The reason is the increasing levels of inventory. Despite back-to-school sales, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and regular sales, the inventory-to-sales ratio remains stubbornly high. Hopefully, November and December numbers will show a catch-up that will help reduce the inventories.”