SIMIC

The company's latest monthly report shows US container imports in October at 2,220,331 TEU, down 13 per cent year on year but still 7.2 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019, reports gCaptain, Ventura, California.

October's decline followed a precipitous 11 per cent year-over-year drop in September, to 2,215,731 TEU, as a slowing economy, retailers reducing purchases, inflation and high fuel costs have finally started to catch up to import throughput at US ports, Descartes said in its previous month's report.

Container imports into the US dipped for the first time in August, falling 1.8 per cent compared to the same month last year to 2,529,042 TEU, after a monthly record-setting streak that began in August 2020.

The downward trend in US container imports from China continued in October. Last month there were 775,258 TEU US container imports from China - a decline of 5.5 per cent from September and down 22.8 per cent from this year's high in August.

This drop has continued to drive impacts particularly for major West Coast ports. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, for example, have seen year-over-year declines in imports originating in China, by 48 per cent and 31.6 per cent, respectively.

Overall, China represented 34.9 per cent of the total US container imports in October, down from their February 2022 high of 41.5 per cent, Descartes' report shows.

East and Gulf Coast ports continued to expand their lead over West Coast ports in terms of share. West Coast ports' share of imports decreased again to 36.4 per cent in October, from 37.0 per cent in September, while East Coast's share was relatively flat month over month, according to Descartes.

For a third month in a row, the Port of New York/New Jersey remained the top destination for containerized imports, at 400,663 TEU for the month. The Port of Los Angeles came in second at 329,785 TEU and Long Beach was third at 300,914 TEU.