National Retail Federation Forecasts Growth

10/14/2015 10 Considerations in Choosing a Freight Audit and Payment Provider


Last week, the National Retail Federation (NRF) released its forecasts for the 2015 holiday season, anticipating a growth of 3.3 percent in container cargo imports over October of 2014 and an increase of 3.7 percent in overall holiday sales over 2014. As a part of this report, NRF notes that port container traffic increased 10.4 percent in August 2015 as compared with the previous year, and that ports are anticipated to handle 1.62 million TEUs in September 2015, up 2.1 percent from last year.

The NRF report notes that West Coast ports have managed to recover from the cargo backlog that was the result of protracted labor negotations. The West Coast, which is the primary entry point for most U.S. imports from Asia, accounts for 59 percent of all imported cargo in the current estimates. In contrast, East Coast ports account for 37 percent of containerized cargo imports and Gulf Coast ports account for 4 percent.

TIA’s International Logistics Conference tracks U.S. port activity and related issues. For more information on how to get involved please contact Will Sehestedt at sehestedt@tianet.org or 703-299-5713.