by Responsible Editor, SeaNewsEditor

7 August (Lloyd's List) - JULY marked increasing strength for US imports, with volumes surpassing 2.5m teu and reaching their third-highest levels on record.

US ports handled 2.55m teu of imports last month, according to logistics and software provider Descartes, an increase of 11.2% on June and 16.3% on pre-pandemic July 2019, and above both July 2021 and 2022, when US imports skyrocketed amid the pandemic-era shipping boom.

July also marked the first time in 26 months that imports crossed 2.4m teu, but without the debilitating port congestion and delays that accompanied the surge in volumes during the shipping boom — and supply chain crisis — of 2021 and 2022.

“Despite July imports exceeding the 2.4m teu level that has stressed ports and inland logistics in the past, overall port transit times in July decreased from June, which is positive for importers,” said Descartes director of industry strategy Jackson Wood.

A record 1.02m teu of imports from China contributed to the growth from June, he added.

US consumer and containerised import demand are highly linked with the state of the US economy. Early signs of a US economic slowdown in July’s job report published last week sent ripples through stock markets, with a sell-off the began on Thursday accelerating on Monday before markets steadied and recovered some ground on Tuesday.

The July report from the US Bureau of Labour Statistics showed a sharp decline in hiring and a higher unemployment rate than expected, although some analysts said that the fallout from Hurricane Beryl could have negatively skewed results.

The National Retail Federation said last month that it expected US imports to peak in August.

While US volumes typically rise in the summer, some of the increases are most likely due to retailers bringing cargo forward, ahead of potential labour disruptions in October, when the contract between the International Longshoremen’s Association and United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) expires.

The union, which represents longshore workers on the east and US Gulf coast ports, has been increasingly warning that it will go on strike when the contract expires on October 1 unless its demands are met, setting the stage for a supply chain catastrophe just over a month before the US presidential election.

On Friday, the union issued a statement saying it would bring delegates for meetings on September 4 to review wage demands, but that the meetings would also “afford the union an opportunity to prepare for a potential coast-wide strike on October 1, 2024, if a new agreement is not reached by then”.

“We are meeting to discuss our ILA demands with our ILA Wage Scale Committee delegates for the next contract we sign with USMX,” said ILA leader Harold Daggett.

“But with less than 30 days to go before the end of our current master contract when these meetings are held, we must prepare our locals and our ILA membership for a strike on October 1, 2024.”

The last time the ILA went on strike was 1977. Daggett said that the union will not extend the existing contract should an agreement for a new one not be reached in time.

“My membership is 100% behind the ILA leadership team, and they know we want to deliver the best contract for them,” he said.

“If that means we have to go out on strike October 1st, they are ready to ‘hit the streets’ if our demands are not met.”

Port of Baltimore recovery

The port of Baltimore resumed operations in June following the catastrophic allision of the Singapore-flagged boxship Dali (IMO: 9697428) with the Francis Key Scott Bridge in March.

Containerised imports recovered somewhat in July, rising fourfold from June levels to 45,666 teu, Descartes said, but were still down 61.4% compared with the same period last year.

The port, which is the primary US gateway for automobiles and ro-ro cargo, saw those volumes increase sequentially from May to June, but they were still muted compared to the year-earlier periods, according to data from the Maryland Port Administration.

MPA executive director Jonathan Daniels recently told a local radio station affiliated with NPR that the port’s volumes should recover by early 2025.