Currently, retail sales continue to surge, affording a higher rate of import cargo volume to parallel the demand of the American consumers. In the month of June, many major retailers have reported growing revenues in comparisons to last year. While double-digit increases are expected to continue throughout the summer seaso-forecast at 16% growth in July-container imports should taper off this fall as retailers cautiously manage their inventories.
Accordingly, U.S. ports handled 1.25 million twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU) in May, the latest month available. Up 10% from April and 20% from May 2009, it also marked the sixth month in a row to show a year-over-year improvement after December broke a 28-month streak of year-over-year declines.
June was estimated at 1.24 million TEU, a 22% increase over last summer. In similar fashion, July is forecast at 1.29 million TEU, a 16% surge leading to an expected 15% climb for the first half of 2010.
“The latest economic indicators are starting to look bleak, including consumer confidence, industrial production and employment numbers,” Hackett Associates founder Ben Hackett said. “Sales will be slower in July and August; that much is certain. Inventories will rise, resulting in some sharp seasonal volume reductions.”
