Front Page	E-mail PagePrint Version

Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, others see box volume below 2006 levels

WASHINGTON, DC – 11/23/07 – Traffic at the nation’s major retail container ports dropped below last year’s levels for the second month in a row in September, and is expected to continue either flat or below last year’s levels for the remainder of the peak shipping season.

The forecast was published earlier this week in the monthly Port Tracker report released recently by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Global Insight, the Massachusetts-based economic research, forecasting and analysis firm.

“Container traffic is expected to continue at a slow pace due to weakness in the US economy,” said Global Insight economist Paul Bingham. “Volumes will continue to decline, but all ports are rated low for congestion, as are truck and rail operations.”

The ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Tacoma, and Seattle on the West Coast; New York/New Jersey, Hampton Roads, Charleston, and Savannah on the East Coast, and Houston on the Gulf Coast were surveyed for the Port Tracker.

All of the ports surveyed are currently rated “low” for congestion, just as they were last month. 

The ports surveyed handled 1.46 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in September, the most recent month for which actual numbers are available.

That figure, the report said, is down about 6,000 containers, or 0.4%, from August, and 1.9% from September 2006. August 2007 was down 1.4% from August 2006.

The low volumes at the ports “reflect retailers’ cautious expectations for sales during the holiday season,” said Jonathan Gold, the NRF’s vice president for supply chain and customs policy, adding “these numbers show that retailers are carefully managing their inventories so that supply won’t exceed demand.”

October, traditionally the peak month of the year as retailers rush to stock shelves for the important holiday season, was estimated at about 3,300 containers short of the record high of 1.51 million TEUs set in October 2006, or a year-to-year decline of 0.2%.

The group’s forecast for this month projects “essentially flat” container volume with about 1.41 million TEUs, or about 200 containers short of November 2006.

December, the NRF said, will see a year-to-year gain of 6.4% at 1.39 million TEUs, and January 2008 will climb 5.9% year-to-year at 1.37 million TEU, while February will drop by 1.3% year-to-year at 1.29 million TEU.

The Port Tracker is produced by Global Insight for the NRF and tracks inbound container volume, the availability of trucks and railroad cars to move cargo out of the ports, labor conditions and other factors that affect cargo movement and congestion.

The Washington, DC-headquartered National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association representing an industry with more than 1.6 million US retail establishments and more than 24 million employees, and 2006 sales of $4.7 trillion.

The trade group also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations.

Global Insight Inc. is a privately held company providing economic and financial information on countries, regions and industries using economic models, data and software within a common analytical framework to support planning and decision-making. 

Go back, or read the latest Front Page stories:

Obama Should Complete Doha Round, CEOs Say

NEW YORK – 11/20/08 – A number of senior level corporate executives are urging the incoming Obama Administration to complete the long-stalled Doha Round of international trade talks in a new report published by the Wall Street Journal; responding to the report, New York Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer said that the Obama Administration and ''Democrats in general think we should trade in the global world,'' but concerns about ''income inequality'' should make business and government ''work together to cushion the blow.''