Major US Retail Ports Busy During Holidays

Imports at the major US retail container ports saw a larger than expected increase during the industry’s busy holiday season, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and consulting firm Hackett Associates.

Ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 1.64 million TEU in November, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. That was down 1.6 percent from October since most imported holiday merchandise had already arrived but up 11.2 percent from November 2015. Global Port Tracker had previously predicted a year-over-year increase of 3.6 percent, according to NRF.