Washington, DC, December 7, 2006--Traffic at the nation’s major retail container ports is slowing down for the winter after hitting its annual peak in October but will still show increases above last year, according to the monthly Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Global Insight.
“The slow season is starting but we’re still expecting growth,” Global Insight Economist Paul Bingham said. “Even as volume trails off over the winter, we’ll still see an increase in volume when compared to the same month a year ago. In the meantime, the ports are operating without congestion, and the truck and rail systems are now improving performance following the peak months. No significant congestion is expected at the ports over the next six months as the industry prepares for next year’s peak season.”
“Port Tracker has helped guide the retail industry through another busy holiday shopping season,” NRF Vice President and International Trade Counsel Erik Autor said. “We were fortunate that there were no congestion problems in the past few months, but it’s important to monitor traffic carefully so that we can anticipate problems and adjust accordingly.”
All ports covered by Port Tracker – Los Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland, Tacoma and Seattle on the West Coast, and New York/New Jersey, Hampton Roads, Charleston and Savannah on the East Coast – are currently rated “low” for congestion, the same as last month.
Nationwide, the ports surveyed handled 1.43 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) of container traffic in October, the most recent month for which actual numbers are available. The figure was up 1.4 percent from September and 4.5 percent from October 2005.
October is the traditional peak of the annual shipping cycle as retailers rush to bring in merchandise for the important holiday shopping season. Volume will begin to decline over the winter months, although numbers will continue to show growth above one year ago. November is forecast at 1.33 million TEU (up 4.6 percent from November 2005), December at 1.29 million TEU (up 7 percent from December 2005), January at 1.24 million (up 1.9 percent from January 2006), and February at 1.17 million TEU (up 10.2 percent from February 2006). Volume will begin to move upward again in March, forecast at 1.27 million TEU (up 2.1 percent from March 2006), and April, forecast at 1.35 million TEU (up 2.1 percent from April 2006). One TEU is a 20-foot cargo container or its equivalent.
