In this blog, we take a look at the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) Global Port Tracker report released in early April.
In the Global Port Tracker report, they made revisions (from their previous March report) on what they now expect to see in the first half of this year regarding U.S. imports.
Global Port Tracker is a monthly report that is created for NRF from Hackett Associates, which shares data and forecasts involving 16 of the top U.S. container ports. They use forecast methodology to predict the varying trends in growth and direction of trade.
Envision an Increase in 1H U.S. Imports
According to the NRF Global Port Tracker report, they predict U.S. imports in the first half of this year to increase 11% over the same time last year. In other words, the first six months of this year is projected to see a total of 11.7 million TEUs, which would be an increase of 11% from the first six months of 2023.
“U.S. imports are continuing to increase despite another disruption [Baltimore bridge collapse] impacting U.S. ports,” Jonathan Gold, NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs policy said on the matter.
The above graph shows the projected monthly U.S. import forecast for this year (in blue), as well as the monthly U.S. import volumes of last year (in gray). You will notice in January and February that monthly U.S. imports were up from those same periods in 2023.
We have also seen reports that show March U.S. import volumes showing a slight increase (less than 1%) from February, but a strong increase (around 15%) from March 2023.
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Looking Ahead
What do you think? Do you expect U.S. imports to see continued monthly increases throughout the first half of this year? Let us know!
Should you have any questions regarding this, please reach out to our team today.
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