Jun 11, 2020

Pandemic’s impact on imports easing slightly

U.S. ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 1.61 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in April, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. That was down 7.8% from a year earlier, but up 17% from a four-year low seen in March and significantly better than the 1.51 million TEU previously expected. A TEU is one 20-foot-long cargo container or its equivalent.

Forecasts

• May was estimated at 1.58 million TEU, down 14.6% year-over-year, but up from the 1.47 million TEU forecast a month ago.
• June is forecast at 1.56 million TEU, down 12.9% from last year but up from the previous forecast of 1.46 million TEU.
• July is forecast at 1.62 million TEU, down 17.4% from last year but up from 1.58 million TEU previously expected.
• August is forecast at 1.71 million TEU, just below the 1.73 million TEU expected a month ago and down 12.9% from last year.
• September is forecast at 1.66 million TEU, slightly lower than the 1.7 million TEU expected a month ago and down 11.3% from last year.
• October, which was not previously forecast, is expected to total 1.73 million TEU, down 7.9% from last year. That would mark the first time since April that the year-over-year decline would drop from double digits to single digits.

Imports for the six-month period from April through September are expected to total 9.74 million TEU, a 3% improvement from the 9.46 million TEU expected a month ago.

The first half of 2020 is forecast to total 9.46 million TEU, down 10% from the same period last year but better than the 9.15 million TEU expected a month ago. Before the extent of the pandemic was known, the first half of the year was forecast at 10.47 million TEU.

Imports during 2019 totaled 21.6 million TEU, a 0.8% decrease from 2018 amid the trade war with China but still the second-highest year on record.

Global Port Tracker, which is produced for NRF by the consulting firm Hackett Associates, provides historical data and forecasts for the U.S. ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma on the West Coast; New York/New Jersey, Port of Virginia, Charleston, Savannah, Port Everglades, Miami and Jacksonville on the East Coast, and Houston on the Gulf Coast. The report is free to NRF retail members. For more information, visit www.NRF.com.