U.S. Container Ports See Significant Growth in Inbound Volumes

The ten largest container ports in the United States experienced “striking” growth in year-over-year inbound cargo volumes in July, according to the latest monthly report from John McCown.

The report highlighted a 20.9% increase in inbound container volumes in July, reaching 2.2 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units). The growth rate surpasses the 17.2% increase observed in June, marking a continuation of strong performance throughout the year.

July’s growth marks the ninth consecutive month of year-over-year volume gains, following a period of 15 months characterized by primarily double-digit declines compared to pandemic-induced spikes.

“I continue to believe that container volume figures and their growth rates and trends provide timely macroeconomic data that is a pulse on underlying economic activity,” stated McCown in his report. “Based on that metric on the movement of tangible goods, the US economy in 2024 has been clearly outperforming the rest of the world.”

The report also noted that July’s overall inbound volume of 2.2 million TEUs was 7.9% higher than in June and 11.3% above May, a month typically regarded as the busiest for U.S. container imports. Notably, July 2024 ranks as the third busiest month ever recorded for inbound volumes, just 3.8% below the record set in May 2022. “That July continued in an uptrend from May is itself an indication of the robustness related to container volume into the US,” the report emphasized.

McCown further addressed speculation that the increase in inbound volumes might be due to concerns over a potential dockworker strike at U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports or increased tariffs if Donald Trump were to be elected. He argued that the data does not support this theory. “There would be an increase in the inventory to sales ratio if that were the case. The overall US business inventory to sales ratio in June was 1.32 times, the same level it was at in January,” McCown explained.

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