U.S. retail import volumes lowest in 7 years
April 15, 2009 by Splatty
Filed under Seafreight
That’s the word from the National Retail Federation, an organization that monitors retail activity. According to the NRF, the number of retail related import containers dropped below the 1 million TEU mark in February. Numbers for March and April were on a slight upward trend, but the NRF mentioned that the volumes will most likely not surpass the 1 million mark again until at least May.
Via NRF.com:
“These numbers come during the slowest part of the annual shipping cycle, so they’re expected to be low, but they nonetheless show the severity of the current recession and its impact on the retail industry,” NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said. “The good news is that we’ve already seen the bottom for the year, and month-to-month numbers are already starting to climb. We’re still going to see double-digit declines compared with last year, but the size of the gap is starting to narrow.”
Volumes for February were down 20.6 percent from January and 31.3 percent from February of 2008.
They are also forecasting the first half of 2009 to be down 21 percent compared to the same time period for 2008.
Visit the NRF website for the complete report.
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