1245 words 4 minute read – Let’s do this!
Happy Almost Friday – We will make this week’s market update, short, sweet and to the point. Let’s talk import volumes: U.S. import container volumes are up for the first time in each of the 1st 3 months of 2024 and bringing potential for disruption at the U.S and Canada ports later this year. The increase of import numbers have been known to affect port fluidity, particularly in the U.S., which has a history of underinvestment in marine terminal capacity. When volumes start to boom, congestion will start to spread at major gateway ports.
On April 9th, U.S. retailers upgraded their first-half import expectations for the 3rd month in a row, predicting volumes will be 11% higher than the 1st six months of 2023. More info can be seen in this article by JOC:
Read the article here
U.S. imports from Asia in February of 1.42 million TEUs were up almost 40% from February 2023, according to PIERS. That followed an 18% year-over-year jump in January.
Inventory levels are starting to normalize from having lower 2023 import volumes. We have seen various import-centric sectors of retail and wholesale trade get inventories-to-sales ratios back to pre-COVID levels, whereas they were elevated in the start of 2023,” he said. “The key issue with inventories-to-sales ratios being in balance is that replenishment orders will now be close to 1 for 1 with sales, whereas during the inventory drawdown period, replenishment orders are — by definition — less than 1 for 1 with sales.
Import TEUs are slightly down 1.28% this week from last, the heaviest volume this week arriving to Los Angeles at a whopping 20.3% of incoming TEU volume, Long Beach 16.8% of incoming TEU volume and Newark NJ 13.9% of incoming TEU volume. Even with a slight downturn in volumes, we are still on the up – and LA and Long Beach Ports remaining at the top: Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka told CNBC in Asia on April 3: “Q1 [volume] looks to be up about 30% for us and it will be the third-best quarter in our history,” “The demand starts with the US consumer and all of those statistics look very strong.” There have been some initial signs of congestion resulting from the strong import volumes.
At the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, while there have been no vessel backups, rail dwell times rose from 4.7 days in January to 6.3 days in February, according to the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association. Marine terminals and railroads acknowledged backlogs that they have been working through. With the already increased transit time from the Panama Canal and Red Sea Crisis, rail dwell is continuing to prolong your container deliveries. What is the answer? Drayage, transloading and trucking – AND Port X Logistics is the Gold Standard in drayage, transloading and trucking. We track your containers from the time they leave overseas, dray your containers from all port locations and transload with plenty of photos provided and load to outbound trucks for the fastest over the road delivery with a shareable tracking app to track drivers all the way to final destination. Transload orders have been piling up as many shippers have been taking the early initiative to speed up deliveries whether it was an ocean delay or to avoid the rails, but we have all the capacity in the world for you! If you want more information on how you can get your cargo diverted at the port and on the road for a speedy delivery with full visibility contact Letsgetrolling@portxlogistics.com
Do you have expedited air cargo as a result of avoiding the transit times of sea and rail completely and need help with domestic air freight shipments on the domestic trucking side? Let our Carrier911 team be your best solution. We can get your drivers assigned and on site at the airport before most of these wait times subside. We have access to cargo vans, straight trucks, dry vans and more. All of our drivers have experience with airport and CFS pickups and have access to retrieving the proper documentation to make these pickups seamless. Don’t forget we provide shareable tracking links and PODs sent at the time of delivery, so you can relax stress free with all of your most critical shipments. Contact the Carrier911 team 24/7/365 info@carrier911.com
What’s happening at the ports and rails?:
You can find all the information on the below link where we cover port congestion, chassis issues and capacity lead times weekly at all U.S. and Canada Ports and rail heads on our website – click on the link below
https://portxlogistics.com/port-rail-updates/
Oakland: OICT has long wait times this week due to Port closures on Monday, driver wait times being reported in excess of 5 hours to pull a container this week. If you are looking for capacity, we encourage you to get your orders in early for the most guaranteed capacity. Send all orders and requests to our Oakland team at Oakland@portxlogistics.com
Vancouver: The Vancouver Ports have been dealing with rail container backlog since early this year as a result of increased container imports. Rail dwell times in excess of 3-7 days on average at Centerm and Deltaport. We got you covered for transloads in Canada too! for all your Canadian shipments, contact Rachel and Erin at Canada@portxlogistics.com for the best in customer service with our friends to the north.
Houston: Up to 1 day waiting time for vessel berthing at Barbours Cut terminal and 2 days at Bayport Container Terminal. Average gate turn times at Barbours Cut Container Terminal are 34 / 53 minutes at Bayport Container Terminal. Loaded container import dwell is at 3.6 days at Barbour’s Cut and 3.4 days at Bayport. Port X Logistics has drayage assets in Houston with the capability of long-haul drayage and we have a transload warehouse in LaPorte that can transload anything from standard pallets, to heavy lumber and industrial coils. If you need help in the Houston area we got your back, contact letsgetrolling@portxlogistics.com
Did you know? The BNSF has a new home in Hudson CO that services the Denver rail? The new BNSF Logistics Center is located 34 miles outside of Denver creating extra distance from the rail depots and local Denver deliveries and creating extra surcharges as a result of the added distance. The BNSF Logistics Center is also still experiencing some backlog, with containers sitting 5+ days before they are being grounded. Did you also know? Our Denver operations have plenty of available drayage coverage and we have a transload warehouse for containers that need to be cross docked. If you are looking to make a change for the better to your Denver container operations, we encourage you to contact our Denver team at Denver@portxlogistics.com
“Q1 [volume] looks to be up about 30% for us and it will be the third-best quarter in our history,” Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka told CNBC in Asia on April 3. “The demand starts with the US consumer and all of those statistics look very strong.”
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