If predictions hold true, July will reach an all-time volume record, followed by another record in August. Forecast is a volume of 1.55 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) for July, which would be up 11.4% from July 2006, and 1.59 million TEU for August, a 6.7% increase year over year. “Despite the volume,” notes Paul Bingham, economist at Global Insight, “U.S. ports are operating without congestion and there is adequate truck and rail capacity to handle the incoming cargo.”
Global Insight produces the Port Tracker, from which these figures are drawn, for the National Retail Federation. Surveyed are Los Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland. Tacoma and Seattle on the West Coast, New York/New Jersey, Hampton Roads, Charleston and Savannah on the East Coast, and the Gulf Coast port of Houston.
As of February, the most recent month for which actual numbers are available, the nation's ports handled 1.28 million TEU of container traffic. Usually the slowest month of the year for container traffic, February was down 1.1% from January, but up 14.9% when compared to February 2006.
National Retail Federation vice president and international trade consultant, Erik Autor predicts that, “This is going to be a very busy summer at the ports and it's important to keep those goods moving toward the store shelves.” Month by month predictions leading to July are March at 1.36 million TEU, up 4.7% year over year; April up 4.3% at 1.44 million TEU; May with 1.45 million TEU, up 6.2%; and June up 5.6% at 1.48 million TEU.
