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Retailers aren’t counting on consumers to pick up the spending pace any time soon.

In March, major U.S. retail ports, including those in Los Angeles/Long Beach and Oakland, Calif., handled 984,633 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs), up 16.8 percent compared with February’s 842,882 TEUs, but down 15 percent from March 2008’s total, according to a report released yesterday by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and IHS Global Insight. February’s volume was the lowest since March 2002.

March marks the 21st consecutive month of year-over-year declines.

“Cargo that came across the docks in March is in the stores now, so these numbers show us that retailers expect slow sales this spring and summer, and have been cautious in the amount of merchandise that they’ve ordered,” said Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president for supply chain and customs policy, in a prepared statement. “Month-to-month numbers are rising, but we’re still expecting significantly lower quantities of merchandise being imported than we saw last year.”

April’s cargo volume is estimated at 1.04 million TEUs, which would represent an 18 percent decline from April 2008’s total. May’s volume is forecasted to drop 19 percent to 1.06 million TEUs.

Volume for first-half 2009 is projected to total 6.1 million TEUs, which would represent a 19 percent year-over-year decrease.

“Import container traffic is projected to continue to be weak for the next several months due to the underlying reduction in demand for goods,” said IHS Global Insight Economist Paul Bingham.