Forecast: Retail imports rebounding

Forecast: Retail imports rebounding    April import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports will be up 8 percent compared with the same month a year ago, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released Monday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

Gold

   'Retail sales are starting to improve and retailers are importing merchandise in the quantities they need to meet that demand,' said Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president for supply chain and customs policy. 'We expect these numbers to continue to climb as merchants and their customers move away from the recession and back toward normal shopping habits.'
   U.S. ports covered by Port Tracker handled 1.01 million TEUs in February, the latest month for which actual numbers are available. That was down 6 percent from January as shipping hit its traditional slow point for the year, but up 20 percent from the unusually low numbers seen during February 2009. It was also the third month in a row to show a year-over-year improvement after December broke a 28-month streak of monthly declines.
   Monthly forecast volumes are:
   ' March, 1.02 million TEUs, a 6 percent increase over last year as spring products began to head for store shelves.
   ' April, 1.07 million TEUs, up 8 percent.
   ' May, 1.12 million TEUs, up 7 percent.
   ' June, 1.18 million TEU, up 17 percent.
   ' July, 1.24 million TEUs, up 12 percent.
   ' August, 1.32 million TEUs, up 15 percent.

Hackett

   'Port volumes have begun to rebound and we expect growth to continue going forward,' said Hackett Associates founder Ben Hackett. 'Retailers were maintaining lean inventories during the recession but are carefully building back up.'
   Global Port Tracker, which is produced for NRF by the consulting firm Hackett Associates, covers the U.S. ports of Long Angeles-Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma on the West Coast; New York-New Jersey, Hampton Roads, Charleston and Savannah on the East Coast; and Houston on the Gulf Coast.