A dip in year-on-year US container imports is a reflection of a shipping anomaly and not falling US retail sales, reports freight and logistics news service ifw-net.com.
The site said US retail sales have improved this summer, while imported cargo volumes have fallen.
Jonathan Gold of the National Retail Federation (NRF) told Ifw-net that this dichotomy was a reflection of last year's unusual shipping patterns more than the economy.
"The economy continues to face challenges, but job growth has been steady and retailers have been adding jobs themselves as sales improve. Cargo figures for this autumn clearly show that retailers are expecting a healthy holiday season," he said.
A Global Port Tracker report produced on behalf of the NRF revealed that in June US ports saw a 5 per cent drop in container imports compared to the prior year. Port Tracker estimated the decline will have continued in July.
The June decline broke an 18-month stretch of year-on-year US import container growth. But the report explained that the figures are a skewed comparison against higher-than-normal numbers last summer, when shipping capacity fears caused many retailers to bring holiday merchandise into the country earlier than usual.
Actual US retail sales have seen 12 months of straight growth, it said. And full-year import container volumes for 2011 are forecast to reach 15.28m TEU, up 3.6 per cent on 2010.
Nevertheless, Ben Hackett, founder of Hackett Associates who produced the NRF's Port Tracker report, warned that a number of key economic indicators were raising concerns about future US cargo growth.
"In the US we have lower private consumption, lower government expenditure and lower indices, like the purchasing managers' index. This is cause for concern because it could lead to lower growth of trade volumes," he said.
Source: Fruitnet.com
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