U.S. retail sales continue to slow in the first half of 2023, imports will still fall by double digits year-over-year. Total U.S. imports reached 2.07 million billion TEUs in May, according to S & P Global PIERS. Although this is the highest total import volume so far in 2023, imports in May were still down 20.4 percent from the same period in 2022, and since November last year, there have been consecutive double-digit year-on-year declines.
including China, Asian imports to the United States fell 22.1 percent year-on-year to 1.38 million TEUs. Imports from China fell 20% YoY to 825,728 TEUs in May, PIERS data showed. Despite the decline, Chinese imports in May reached their highest level since September 2022. "
The U.S. Census Bureau's (US Census Bureau's estimate of retail sales in May showed that retail sales in May rose only 0.7 percent year-on-year, the second-lowest growth rate in 2023. Earlier, retail sales in April were similarly weak, rising 0.2 percent year-on-year, the lowest level since 2023. Slower sales mean U.S. businesses can barely trim inventories.
Houston falls more modest
The decline in imports so far this year has been largely evenly distributed across major U.S. portals. On the West Coast, the ports of Seattle and Tacoma are down 33.3 percent in the first five months of 2023. Due to weak demand, ocean carriers have targeted weekly service in the Pacific Northwest in particular for cuts and suspensions.
also, in the first five months of 2023, the Port of Los Angeles handled 3.3 million TEU of cargo, down 27% from the same period in 2022. The Port of Long Beach handled 758,225TEU in May, up 15.6 percent quarter-on-quarter and down 14.9 percent.
East Coast ports are not doing much better, although some cargo is being moved from the West Coast to the East Coast because of labor problems on the West Coast. New York, Jersey and Savannah, the two largest gateway ports on the East Coast, saw year-over-year declines of 30.8 per cent and 26.1 per cent, respectively, in Asian cargo imports in the first five months of 2023.
Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said that even with the improvement in throughput, our terminal is still a long way from operating at full capacity. But once a West Coast labor deal is in place, the port "looks set to be even stronger in the second half of the year".
Among the major U.S. ports, only Houston's decline was smaller, with its Asian imports falling 6.1 percent in the first five months of 2023.
PIERS' latest data is in line with the National Retail Federation's (NRF) Global Port Tracker forecast that the year-on-year decline will begin to narrow, falling to 15% in June, and then in the third quarter to a single-digit decline.
The port's latest forecast for the 2023-24 fiscal year, which begins in July, shows that total throughput will reach 9 million TEUs, up 5 percent from the current fiscal year.
Seroka says the increase in trans-Pacific vessels tells me that seasonal product flows are picking up. We have seen an increase in ships bound for Los Angeles, which is an encouraging sign.
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