WASHINGTON — April 7, 2022 — The nation’s major retail container ports have begun to catch up with the backlog of cargo seen over the past several months, but could experience another surge this summer, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
NRF供应链和海关政策副总裁Jonathan Gold说：“当我们进入2022年时，最大的问题是供应链何时恢复正常。”“不幸的是，我们仍然没有明确的答案。西海岸港口的拥塞已经缓解，但东海岸港口的拥塞正在增长。港口并不像一年前那样不知所措，但他们仍然很忙于移动近乎记录的货物。”
U.S. ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 2.11 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units — one 20-foot container or its equivalent — in February, the latest month for which final numbers are available. That was down 2.3 percent from January but up 13 percent year-over-year.
Hackett Associates Founder Ben Hackett said volumes remained high in February despite factories in parts of Asia closing for the Lunar New Year holiday because U.S. ports were able to handle cargo from ships already waiting for a berth.
“With West Coast ports still congested, there were still plenty of containers to be unloaded,” Hackett said. Similarly, the current near-shutdown of Shanghai because of COVID-19 precautions means fewer ships are leaving China and “the wait on that side of the Pacific will help reduce the pressure of vessel arrivals at Los Angeles-area terminals.” An influx of vessel arrivals following the resumption of normal operations in China could result in renewed congestion at U.S. ports, however.
Ports have not yet reported March numbers, but Global Port Tracker projected the month at 2.27 million TEU, unchanged from the same month last year. April is forecast at 2.13 million TEU, down 1.1 percent from last year, and May at 2.21 million TEU, down 5.3 percent year-over-year. Increases are expected to resume in June, which is forecast at 2.26 million TEU, up 5.2 percent year-over-year. July is forecast at 2.32 million TEU, up 5.6 percent, and August at 2.35 million TEU, a 3.3 percent year-over-year increase that would set a new record for the number of containers imported in a single month since NRF began tracking imports in 2002. The current record is 2.33 million TEU in May 2021.
The first six months of 2022 are expected to total 13.1 million TEU, up 2.5 percent year-over-year. Imports for all of 2021 totaled 25.8 million TEU, a 17.4 percent increase over 2020’s previous annual record of 22 million TEU.
How to build a stronger and more sustainable supply chain will be addressed as retailers, industry experts and technology innovators meet at the NRF Supply Chain 360 conference in Cleveland in June.
Global Port Tracker, which is produced for NRF by Hackett Associates, provides historical data and forecasts for the U.S. ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma on the West Coast; New York/New Jersey, Port of Virginia, Charleston, Savannah, Port Everglades, Miami and Jacksonville on the East Coast, and Houston on the Gulf Coast. The report is free to NRF retail members, and subscription information is available at NRF.com/PortTracker
Posted: April 7, 2021
Source: The National Retail Federation (NRF)
