Global Insight: Slow February will still best 2006 TEU counts

Global Insight: Slow February will still best 2006 TEU counts Traffic at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to be at its slowest point of the year during February, but will still show growth over 2006, according to the monthly Port Tracker report released Wednesday by the National Retail Federation and Global Insight.
   'The slow season will be at its slowest in February,' Global Insight economist Paul Bingham said. 'Container volumes are expected to be down below already-slow January traffic levels, but U.S. ports are operating congestion-free, while truck and rail performance is more than adequate for the slow-season volume. Even though it's the slow season, we're still seeing increases compared with a year ago. Traffic isn't likely to grow as quickly as it did last year, but each month is still expected to set new records for that month.'
   All U.S. ports covered by Port Tracker — Los Angeles-Long Beach, Oakland, Tacoma and Seattle on the West Coast; and New York-New Jersey, Hampton Roads, Charleston and Savannah on the East Coast — are rated 'low' for congestion, the same as last month.
   Nationwide, the ports surveyed handled 1.26 million TEUs of container traffic in December, the most recent month for which actual numbers are available. The figure was down 6.7 percent from November but up 5 percent from December 2005.
   Volume is expected to follow its usual pattern of declining over the winter months, although numbers will continue to show growth above one year ago. January is forecast at 1.24 million TEUs (up 2.3 percent from January 2006), and February (historically the slowest month of the year) at 1.17 million TEUs (up 9.8 percent from February 2006). Volume will begin to move upward again in March, forecast at 1.28 million TEUs (up 3.1 percent from March 2006). April is forecast at 1.37 million TEUs (up 3.4 percent from April 2006), May at 1.39 million TEU (up 6.1 percent from May 2006), and June at 1.43 million TEUs (up 5.7 percent from June 2006).