Despite the prospect of heavy tariffs on goods from China, imports at the US’ major retail container ports are expected to grow steadily throughout the summer of 2018, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy, Jonathan Gold, said:
With proposed tariffs yet to be officially imposed, retailers are stocking up on merchandise that could soon cost considerably more. If tariffs do take effect, there’s no quick or easy way to switch where these products come from. American families will simply be stuck paying higher prices and hundreds of thousands of US jobs could be lost.
Highlights
- Ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 1.54 million TEUs in March, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. That was down 8.6% from February because of Lunar New Year factory shutdowns in Asia but down only 0.7% year-over-year.
- April was estimated at 1.73 million TEU, up 6.4% year-over-year.
- May is forecast at 1.82 million TEU, up 4.3% from last year;
- June also at 1.82 million TEU, up 6.1% ;
- July at 1.9 million TEU, up 5.5% ;
- August at 1.92 million TEU, up 4.6% , and
- September at 1.82 million TEU, up 2.1%.
- The numbers forecast for July and August would each set new records for the number of containers imported in a single month, beating the previous high of 1.83 million TEU in August 2017.
- The first half of 2018 is expected to total 10.4 million TEU, an increase of 5.8% over the first half of 2017. The total for 2017 was 20.5 million TEU, up 7.6% from 2016’s previous record of 19.1 million TEU.
Hackett Associates Founder Ben Hackett said:
Despite the threats and risks to trade, we continue to see solid expansion and our models are projecting this to continue throughout the year. This is driven by a high level of confidence as the economy remains strong and unemployment is at its lowest level in nearly two decades.