NRF: U.S. container imports stagnant in October

Import cargo volumes at the nation’s major retail container ports in October dipped 0.1 percent from a year ago, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report from the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.    Import cargo volumes at the major United States retail container ports have shown little growth during the traditional peak holiday shipping season, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
   Ports covered by the Global Port Tracker report in October, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available, handled 1.56 million TEUs, a 4.1 percent decrease from September and a 0.1 percent decrease from a year ago. Hackett Associates previously predicted October volumes at 1.62 million TEUs, which would have been a 3.8 percent increase from 2014.
   NRF said it expected import volumes to remain essentially unchanged from last October as stores brought in the last round of merchandise for the holiday season.
   “The holiday season is well under way and merchants are doing the final balancing act of matching supply to demand,” NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said in a statement. “Retailers went into the season with strong inventories that ensured consumers would have a good depth and breadth of selection, and that should hold true for the remainder of the season.”
   Hackett Associates estimates November volumes at the ports will reach 1.5 million TEUs, a 7.4 percent year-over-year increase. The firm projects throughput in December to be 1.44 million TEUs, down 0.1 percent from 2014.
   Should those projections hold true, the dozen ports covered by the Global Port Tracker will have handled a total of 18.3 million TEUs, a 5.5 percent year-over-year bump. Throughput in the first half of 2015 increased 6.5 percent to 8.9 million TEUs compared to the same period last year.
   The report also forecasted 16.9 percent year-over-year growth to 1.44 million TEUs in January, noting that volumes should rebound significantly from a weak 2014 first quarter caused by harsh winter weather and West Coast port congestion that resulted from the contentious labor contract dispute between dockworkers and the Pacific Maritime Association.
   Hackett Associates Founder Ben Hackett said retailers are still working off the excess inventory built up from bottlenecks at West Coast ports that have been sustained diminished the demand for winter clothing, but that consumers are buying.
   “U.S. retail sales increased in October by the most in three months and consumer sentiment rose as well, but the inventory-to-sales ratio remained stubbornly high at levels not seen since the Great Recession in 2009,” Hackett said. “Personal savings increased, but on the flip side so did the use of credit cards.”
   Global Port Tracker, which is produced for NRF by the consulting firm Hackett Associates, covers the U.S. ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle, Tacoma, New York/New Jersey, Hampton Roads, Charleston, Savannah, Port Everglades, Miami and Houston.