Sea container imports seen better than expected in holiday period, report says
Container flows projected up 7 percent in December, more than double original forecasts.
Import traffic at the nation’s 11 major container ports is expected to have risen more than originally predicted during the holiday period, according to the monthly “Global Port Tracker” report released today by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and consultancy Hackett Associates.
The ports handled 1.64 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of containers in November, the latest month for which actual numbers are available, according to the data. That was down 1.6 percent from October, but up 11.2 percent from November 2015. Global Port Tracker had previously predicted a year-over-year increase of just 3.6 percent. Ocean container flows in November usually decline from October’s figures because most holiday import merchandise has already arrived in the U.S. by Halloween.
December traffic, which is still being tallied, is estimated at 1.54 million TEU, up 7 percent year over year. The original forecast was for a 3.2-percent increase.
Comments are closed