Retailers: Imports remain high; port congestion still an issue

Imports at the nation’s largest retail container ports are expected to remain at near-record levels this month, but could see a slight dip from last year’s unusually high numbers as congestion slows the movement of backed-up cargo, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released yesterday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

"The cargo is there for larger gains at several ports but congestion issues are impacting fluid operations," NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said in a press release. "Ships will eventually get unloaded but the pressure is on for everyone to work together to get the containers out as quickly as possible."

Hackett said COVID-19 infections in Asia have slowed the loading of U.S.-bound ships, while shortages of equipment, labor and outbound truck and rail capacity have continued to build congestion at U.S. ports.

Close to 75 ships were waiting at anchor to enter the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach recently, up from around 25 a month earlier, and backups are spreading to East Coast ports, as well.

U.S. ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 2.27 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs)  in August, the latest month for which final numbers are available.

That was up 3.5% from July and up 7.8% from a year earlier and tied March as the second-busiest month since NRF began tracking imports in 2002. May remains the busiest month on record at 2.33 million TEU.