Retail Cargo Volumes Hit Seven-Year Low
The slump in the nation’s retail industry translated into slower cargo volumes in February at all the major ports across the United States.
February cargo volumes were down 31.3 percent from the same period last year. U.S. ports handled only 847,832 20-foot containers for the month, compared with 1.2 million containers in February 2008. Even though February is traditionally the slowest shipping time of the year because of the Chinese New Year, monthly cargo volumes hadn’t dipped below the 1 million mark since March 2002, when 818,342 containers were unloaded on incoming ships.
The first half of 2009 is now forecast at 5.9 million 20-foot containers, down 21 percent from the 7.5 million seen in the first half of 2008, according to the monthly Port Tracker report, which is released by the National Retail Federation in Washington, D.C.
Total volume for 2008 was 15.2 million 20-foot containers, down 7.9 percent from 2007’s 16.5 million containers and the lowest level since 2004’s 14 million containers.
“These numbers come during the slowest part of the annual shipping cycle, so they’re expected to be low. But they nonetheless show the severity of the current recession and its impact on the retail industry,” said Jonathan Gold, the NRF’s vice president for supply chain and customs policy. “The good news is that we’ve already seen the bottom for the year, and month-to-month numbers are already starting to climb. We’re still going to see double-digit declines compared with last year, but the size of the gap is starting to narrow.”
Cargo volumes for March are estimated to be down 20 percent from last year, and April is forecast to be off by 22 percent.
Port Tracker surveys cargo volumes at major ports across the country in areas such as Long Beach/Los Angeles; Oakland, Calif.; Seattle and Tacoma, Wash.; New York/New Jersey; and Savannah, Ga. —Deborah Belgum
