IMPORT/EXPORT
Retailers Stocking Later for the Back-to-School and Holiday Seasons
It seems like retailers are going slow this summer.
The Back-to-School and Holiday seasons, which used to see merchandise arriving as early as August and September, won’t rev up until October, according to the National Retail Federation.
In its monthly “Port Tracker” report, which monitors cargo-container traffic coming into the nation’s largest ports, imports will see a major jump in October but be pretty blasé until then.
“With the economic recovery moving slowly, retailers are being cautious this summer and could hold off on stocking up for the Holiday season until fall,” said Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president for supply chain and customs policy. “We aren’t expecting significant increases for imports until October, when retailers will have a better idea of what to expect for Holiday demand.”
The major U.S. ports brought in 1.31 million 20-foot containers in April, down 0.1 percent from the same month last year. May was estimated to be up 2.2 percent from last year with 1.4 million containers. June is expected to see a 1.1 percent rise with 1.4 million containers, and July will inch up 1.9 percent from last year with an estimated 1.44 million containers.
August is expected to be fairly even with a 0.5 percent increase to 1.43 million containers, and September will only be up 0.8 percent with 1.48 million containers. The big month will be October, when imported cargo containers will see a 7.9 percent jump to 1.45 million cargo containers.
The number of imported cargo containers being shipped into the country during the first six months of 2012 was a 1.9 percent increase over 2012 with approximately 7.8 million containers.
“We are witnessing a period of import trade growth that is running more or less in sync with the U.S. economic expansion. Unfortunately, both are anemic,” said Ben Hackett, founder of Hackett Associates, which, with the National Retail Federation, prepares the “Port Tracker” report. “The impact of this extremely cautious consumer spending is that we expect import consumption to remain weak for the coming four to six months.”
