August 12, 2024
Monthly inbound cargo volume at the major container ports in the United States could see a near-record surge this month as retailers bring in merchandise ahead of a potential strike at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports this fall, according to the Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates.
U.S. ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 2.16 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units one 20-foot container or its equivalent in June, the latest month for which final numbers are available. That was up 3.6% from May and up 17.7% year over year. That brought the total for the first half of 2024 to 12.1 million TEU, up 15% over the same period in 2023. (The totals include estimates for the ports of New York/New Jersey and Miami, which have not reported TEU counts for June.)
Ports have not yet reported July's numbers, but Global Port Tracker projected that volume shot up to 2.34 million TEU, up 22.1% year over year and the highest level since the record of 2.4 million TEU set in May 2022. August is forecast to also total 2.34 million TEU, up 19.2% year over year.
September is forecast at 2.16 million TEU, up 6.5% year over year; October at 2.09 million TEU, up 1.7%; November at 1.98 million TEU, up 4.4%, and December at 1.94 million TEU, up 3.5%. Those numbers would bring 2024 to 24.9 million TEU, up 12.1% from 2023.
Source: NRF