USA's major container ports are expected to see a steady increase in import cargo volume this summer. However, it will remain below the record-setting levels seen during most of the pandemic, according to the Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates.

The report projected that the number of Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEU) handled by U.S. ports would be 1.86 million TEU in April, down 18% from last year. May is expected to see 1.91 million TEU, down 20.1%; June at 1.99 million TEU, down 11.8%; July at 2.1 million TEU, down 3.9%, and August at 2.13 million TEU, down 5.9%. The first half of 2023 is forecasted to be 10.8 million TEU, down 20.2% from the first half of 2022.

Although the decline in import volume is significant year over year, it is skewed by unusually high volumes last year. The pandemic led to a 20-month streak of totals above 2 million TEU that began in 2021, including an all-time monthly record of 2.4 million TEU in May 2022, which ended only last November. In comparison, imports averaged 1.8 million TEU per month during pre-pandemic 2019.

The report suggested that the decline in import volume was partly due to carriers increasingly dropping service to Los Angeles-area ports and stretching voyages to include other ports of call to help absorb excess capacity. However, the report also stated that new ships are starting to show up, and more have been ordered, indicating that carriers expect demand to improve by the time the new vessels are delivered.

By Fashionating World
https://www.fashionatingworld.com/new1-2/us-container-ports-brace-for-lower-import-volumes-this-summer