Thanksgiving has arrived for the US and Canada and the Christmas holidays are rapidly approaching; seasonal imports are surging in North America, with an increase of 6% in July-September, 2015, compared to the same period in 2014, according to Zepol Corporation.
The Port of Los Angeles has handled more than 3.4 million TEU in the year-to-date.
Import volumes were recorded at 1.86 million TEU in August, 2015, which is 9% higher than in August, 2014. The growth of US imports is said to be caused by a higher consumption of goods, which includes presents for the Christmas season.
The reasons for the spike in import volumes could also be due to the slowdown seen at the start of 2015 as a result of the US West Coast port shutdown, which was caused by a labour dispute and led to serious congestion problems at a number of ports, with importers aiming to increase throughput and recover from the effects of the closure.
According to the Journal of Commerce, the Port of Long Beach has seen record-breaking volumes in 2015, and handled 690,000 TEU in the month of July, which, according to Noel Hacegaba, CCO of the Port of Long Beach, is double-digit growth for the port.
Read a Technical Paper by Noel Hacegaba on how Long Beach is driving US growth
The team at PTI would like to wish all of our American and Canadian friends a Happy Thanksgiving.
(Source: iStock)
