Import cargo volumes at America’s major container ports are expected to drop in February 2023 to nearly their lowest level since the beginning of the pandemic. So says the National Retail Federation.

With the US economy slowing, and consumers worried by rising interest rates and still-high inflation, retailers are importing less merchandise. Retailers are being cautious as they wait to see how the economy responds to efforts to bring inflation under control.

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 there is a high degree of uncertainty.

The volumes handled by US ports in December 2022 were down 2.6 per cent from November 2022 and down 17 per cent from December 2021. That brought 2022 – which broke multiple monthly records in the first half of the year but saw significant drops in the second half – to an annual total which was down 1.2 per cent from the annual record set in 2021.

As the leading authority and voice for the retail industry, NRF analyzes economic conditions affecting the industry.

By Fashionating World
https://www.fashionatingworld.com/new1-2/decline-in-imports-volumes-at-us-ports