Port Tracker upbeat, expecting 13pc hike in US March box traffic

IMPORT cargo volume at America's retail container ports is expected to rise 13 per cent year-on-year this month according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by Hackett Associates and the National Retail Federation (NRF), with double-digit increases expected to continue through till the middle of the year.

Federation vice president Jonathan Gold said the sustained growth was a testament to retailers' confidence in the US economy, marking a significant change to the inventory swings over the past two years.

December 2009 was the first to break the 28-month streak of year-on-year declines, with January and February following suit, recording two per cent and 29 per cent gains respectively.

Growth rates for the four months following March are expected to hover somewhere between 17 and 25 per cent, with the first half of the year expected to experience a 6.9 million TEU throughput, up 17 per cent from 2009.

Port Tracker is produced by consulting firm Hackett Associates on behalf of the NRF, and covers a number if major US ports, including Long Beach, Oakland, Los Angeles, Tacoma, and Seattle on the West Coast; Hampton Roads, New Jersey, New York, Savannah, and Charleston on the East; and Houston along the Gulf.

(Source: www.schednet.com)