In January, U.S. containerized imports logged their highest month-on-month gain since last May, according to data from Descartes. Inbound volumes rose 7.2% versus December to 2,068,493 twenty-foot equivalent units, Descartes reported Wednesday.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that last month’s imports were almost identical to Descartes’ imports stats for January 2019 and 2020, pre-pandemic.
The worse news is that this month looks especially weak, according to Port Tracker, which covers 12 U.S. ports and is published by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
February could be slowest month since May 2020
Port Tracker just cut its projections for early 2023. On Tuesday, it reduced its outlook for January-May imports by 3.5% versus estimates released a month ago.
Port Tracker now projects that the facilities it covers will handle 1.57 million TEUs in February, down 26% year on year “for the slowest month since 1.53 million TEUs in May 2020, when many factories in Asia and most U.S. stores were closed by the pandemic,” said the NRF.
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