Is there a port strike coming? Import retailers stock up in advance
U.S. retailers prepared this year for a potential strike by port workers and continued disruptions to shipping due to the Red Sea crisis by stepping up imports over the summer to ensure adequate supplies for the year-end shopping season. This move has made the arrival of the peak season of the global shipping industry earlier than in previous years, and global container imports and freight rates have increased significantly in July.
According to Reuters and data released by Descartes Datamyne, a trade database owned by supply chain software company Descartes Systems Group, U.S. container imports reached 2.6 million TEU(standard set) in July, That was up 16.8% from a year earlier, not only a record for a single month, but also the third-highest on record, thanks in part to surging imports from China.
At the same time, data from shipping platform Xeneta also showed that non-contract spot freight rates for containers from the Far East to the West of the United States surged 144 per cent between the end of April and the beginning of July, reflecting the tightness of the seaborne market although they have since fallen back. Similar price trends have been observed on routes to the Eastern United States, Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.
Experts noted that the surge in imports was not driven solely by an increase in consumer spending, but was a precautionary measure taken by retailers to prepare for a possible strike by U.S. port workers. In addition, due to the later date of Thanksgiving (Nov. 28) this year, it also further compressed the peak shopping and delivery period from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve, prompting retailers to stock up earlier.
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As negotiations between the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Union (USMX) stalled, retailers' fears of a possible strike at ports from Maine to Texas on October 1 intensified, accelerating their efforts to stock up.
It is worth noting that the Office of the United States Trade Representative was one of the important drivers of the growth of US container imports in the first half of the year, partly because the market expectation that the United States will impose tariffs on a variety of imported goods later this year, prompting related companies to purchase and reserve in advance.
