US imports rose month-on-month in January, but the outlook for February is unclear

According to logistics systems provider Descartes, JanuaryUnited StatesContainer's imports have recorded the highest month-on-month increase since May last year.Imported cases rose 7.2% to 2,068,493 TEUs in January compared to December, roughly the same as the figures for January 2019 and January 2020.

Imports are expected to be weak in February, according to a port tracking report jointly released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates.The report predicts that the throughput of the 12 US ports covered by it will be 1.57 million TEUs in February, down 26% year-on-year and the lowest since May 2020. The report has just lowered the forecast of imported cases from January to May by 3.5%.

Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the NRF, said February containers were usually low, but this year was the lowest in nearly three years.

The report estimates that the number of cases imported from the United States in the first half of 2023 will drop by 19.4% compared with the first half of 2022, when imports hit a record high.On the positive side, the import caseload from March to June is expected to be higher than in 2018-2019.

Chris Jones, executive vice president of Descartes Industry and Services, pointed out that in the second half of 2022, the decline in imports from China led to the overall decline in US imports, and this trend reversed in January.

In January this year, Container imports from China increased by 75,359TEU compared with December last year, accounting for 70.7% of the increase in US imports in that month.

It is worth mentioning that last year, some imports from American and Western ports were absorbed by American East and American Bay ports, but in January this year, American and Western ports "recovered lost ground", and the traffic volume of Yangtze River Container increased by 35,054 TEU compared with that of Qi Port.

Jones said, "The economy is a key factor in Container's import growth, but it is still impossible to predict the future. Although the logistics indicators released by Descartes in January show some stability, the global supply chain network in 2023StillFaceChallenge"

Get a free quote within 24 hours