Post by dockside on Sept 10, 2008 13:10:12 GMT -5
Container forecast revised for weak finish to 2008
September 9, 2008
By Bill Mongelluzzo / The JOURNAL of COMMERCE
Retailers are forecasting a dismal close to an uninspiring year at the nation’s seaports, with containerized imports projected to decline 6 percent in 2008.
Port Tracker, which is published each month by the National Retail Federation and the economic forecasting firm Global Insight, projects that containerized imports for each of the remaining months of 2008 will be lower than imports in the corresponding month of 2007.
This marks a reversal from Port Tracker’s August report, which had projected slight increases in October and in December.
“Retailers are tightening up their inventories to reflect what they expect to be able to sell during the holiday season,” said Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president for supply chain and customs policy.
Port Tracker projects that September’s containerized imports will be down 8.6 percent; off 2.9 percent in October; 5.3 percent in November, and 0.4 percent in December, from the corresponding months in 2007.
The peak-shipping season this year will not be much of a peak at all. Imports in September, considered to be the first month of the peak season, are projected to be 2.1-percent lower than they were in August.
Most U.S. ports will be free of congestion for the remainder of the year, and rail and trucking services should be adequate in the face of soft demand.
The only exception is Los Angeles-Long Beach. Port Tracker rates the largest U.S. port complex as “medium” for congestion due to uncertainties surrounding implementation of the ports’ clean-trucks programs on Oct. 1.
A U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday denied a request by the American Trucking Associations to block implementation of the concession requirements in the clean-trucks programs. Harbor trucking companies must scramble over the next three weeks to secure concessions from the ports.
September 9, 2008
By Bill Mongelluzzo / The JOURNAL of COMMERCE
Retailers are forecasting a dismal close to an uninspiring year at the nation’s seaports, with containerized imports projected to decline 6 percent in 2008.
Port Tracker, which is published each month by the National Retail Federation and the economic forecasting firm Global Insight, projects that containerized imports for each of the remaining months of 2008 will be lower than imports in the corresponding month of 2007.
This marks a reversal from Port Tracker’s August report, which had projected slight increases in October and in December.
“Retailers are tightening up their inventories to reflect what they expect to be able to sell during the holiday season,” said Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president for supply chain and customs policy.
Port Tracker projects that September’s containerized imports will be down 8.6 percent; off 2.9 percent in October; 5.3 percent in November, and 0.4 percent in December, from the corresponding months in 2007.
The peak-shipping season this year will not be much of a peak at all. Imports in September, considered to be the first month of the peak season, are projected to be 2.1-percent lower than they were in August.
Most U.S. ports will be free of congestion for the remainder of the year, and rail and trucking services should be adequate in the face of soft demand.
The only exception is Los Angeles-Long Beach. Port Tracker rates the largest U.S. port complex as “medium” for congestion due to uncertainties surrounding implementation of the ports’ clean-trucks programs on Oct. 1.
A U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday denied a request by the American Trucking Associations to block implementation of the concession requirements in the clean-trucks programs. Harbor trucking companies must scramble over the next three weeks to secure concessions from the ports.