Solid import volume growth is the key theme of Descartes’ Global Shipping Report

In its recently-released February Global Shipping Report, Waterloo, Ontario-based Descartes, a provider of logistics based on-demand, software-as-a-service offerings, observed a return to growth patterns, for United States-bound container imports.

This is the 19th edition of the Global Shipping Report, going back to its debut in August 2021.

For the month of January, Descartes noted that U.S. container volumes—at 2,068,943 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units)—were up 7.2% compared to December’s 1,929,032 TEU, which were down 1.3% compared to November, and its largest December to January increase in the last six years. While volume saw a sequential gain, they were down 16.1% annually, with the caveat that this tally was only 0.3% below a pre-pandemic January 2019.  The report also noted that even though the Lunar New Year was in January, the subsequent impact on import volumes won’t be felt until later this month and into March.

“Comparing January 2023 import volume to growth of the previous five years, the 7.2% increase can be considered significant, and Chinese imports rebounded with even stronger growth,” said Chris Jones, EVP Industry & Services at Descartes, in a statement. “The January U.S. container import data shows some stability, but a number of issues continue to point to challenging global supply chain performance in 2023.”

Other notable takeaways, regarding January’s output in the report included: port transit delays continuing to improve but only for the top East Coast ports; a rebound in Chinese imports, at a stronger pace that overall U.S. container imports (up 11% over December, to 762,967 TEU and down 24% compared to August and 36.9% of total U.S. container imports, down 6.1% from the 41.5% high in February 2022]; the pandemic still being a factor; the still-unresolved West Coast labor situation; and the economy defying predictions.

Looking at sequential volume performance for individual ports, Descartes reported that import volumes, for the top 10 U.S. ports were up by 107,059 TEU, with all ports showing gains, except for the Port of Savannah. Leading the way, for volume, were: the Port of Long Beach, up 35,054 TEU, at 14.4%; the Port of Houston, up 28,963 TEU, at 22.4%; Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, up 20,005, at 6.4%; Port of Los Angeles, up 9,767 TEU, at 2.8%; and Port of Tacoma, up 6,016 TEU, at 13.9%.

In an interview with LM, Descartes’ Jones explained that January’s numbers were a bit of a surprise, in that volumes saw a 7.2% sequential increase.

“That was really the first time we saw a change in direction and really in line with the same period in 2019 and is really starting to align with 2019 volumes,” he said.

As for whether the return to 2019 volume levels was encouraging or expected, Jones said it is really a bit of both things.

“The general sentiment, especially when you look at things like how people have been [forecasting] the economy, in particular, has been more pessimistic,” he said. “I would say people would have been more surprised to see it down again. But if you look at where the economy has been over the last two quarters, we have had GDP growth, with the fourth quarter at 2.9%, which is solid.”

From a volume share perspective, the report found that volume share, for the top East Coast and West Coast ports, was relatively stable. And it explained that when comparing the top five West Coast ports to the top five East and Gulf Coast ports in January 2023 versus December 2022 shows that, of the total import container volume, the East and Gulf Coast ports declined slightly to 45.2% down 0.3% versus December 2022 and the West Coast ports increased in January to 38.6%, up 0.5% versus December 2022.  

What’s more, it added that following an October 2022 low of 36.6%, West Coast ports have gained 2.0% volume share. The top 10 ports gained share in January 2023 compared to smaller ports, with the top 10 accounting for 84.0% of all volume compared with December 2022’s 83.6%. But it added that, in an ongoing trend, top 10 port market share has seen steady declines going back to mid-2022 and January and February 2022 highs of 86.6%