Container Traffic at Ports Dips for 16th Straight Month
Cargo volume at the nation’s largest ports has dropped to its lowest level in four years.
According to the National Retail Federation, container traffic is expected to decline 7.1 percent this year compared with last year.
Incoming volume for the year is projected to be 15.3 million 20-foot containers, compared with 16.5 million containers last year, the NRF said in its monthly Port Tracker report.
“As retailers face the most challenging holiday season in years, they are being careful with their inventory levels, and that means lower volume at the ports,” said Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president for supply chain and customs policy. “Cargo volume isn’t a direct correlation with dollar volume of sales, but it’s a good indication of what retailers are thinking.”
Traffic at the ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, the largest complex of its kind in the United States, is also down markedly. In November, the number of inbound cargo containers arriving at the Port of Los Angeles dipped 9.69 percent to 338,905 containers.
At the Port of Long Beach, inbound container traffic in October, the most recent month for which information is available, was down 9.5 percent to 292,456 containers.
Port observers haven’t seen this kind of decline since 2004.
Next year, the NRF is predicting that port traffic will shrink 4.9 percent in January and 9 percent in February, the slowest shipping month of the year, and increase 2.5 percent in March. —Deborah Belgum
