SIMIC

FOR the month of February, Toronto-area research house Descartes observed that US container volumes fell 16.2 per cent month over month at 1.7 million TEU, reports the American Journal of Transportation.
It also fell 25 per cent annually, down 0.3 per cent compared to February 2019 before the pandemic.
"Examining imports from January and February in the previous six years, February 2023 volumes would have been expected to be significantly lower than January 2023," said Descartes executive vice president Chris Jones.
"Declining container import volumes but rising port transit times demonstrate that, while 2023 volumes resemble 2019, global supply chain performance could remain uneven in 2023."
The report also observed that even though imports fell in February, port transit delays were up for the top west, east, and Gulf Coast ports.
Descartes reported that February import volumes fell 296,390 TEU, with all ports posting declines, with the exception of the Port of Tacoma, which posted an eight per cent, or 4,169 TEU, improvement.
The Port of Los Angeles saw the steepest sequential import decline, being down 32 per cent, or 118,442 TEU.
From a volume share perspective, the report found that volume share, for the top east coast and west coast ports, was relatively stable.
For total import volume, east and Gulf Coast ports rose to 48.6 per cent, for a 1.6 per cent boost over January 2023, with west coast ports falling 2.8 per cent, to 36.0 per cent, marking its lowest share over the last year, for west coast ports.
The report added that comparing the top 10 US ports to smaller ports, the top 10 ports' market share fell to 82.8 per cent of all volume.
Said Mr Jones: "The general sentiment, especially when you look at things like how people have been forecasting the economy, in particular, has been more pessimistic.
"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 per cent, which is solid," he said.