Zepol Corporation, the leading trade intelligence company, reports that U.S. import shipment volume for May, measured in TEUs, increased 9.27% from April and 8.76% from May of 2010. The total number of shipments also increased 9.35% from April and more than 9% from May of 2010. Year to date, total TEUs are up 7.9% this year over last year.

Key Statistics from this Month's Update:

  • Shipments departing from ports in Asia continued to spiral upwards, showing an increase of almost 12% from April. Once again, much of this can be attributed to a rise in imports from China. Japan posted a 2.43% decrease in shipments in May due to the earthquake and tsunami of March. While Europe turned things around with increasing shipments nearly 7% from April, Central America recorded a shipment decrease of almost 5%.
  • Ports in the Pacific region of the U.S. showed an increase in the number of incoming shipments, particularly in California, which increased nearly 13% in May. Within California, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach exhibited a 14.18% and 11.34% increase in shipments, respectively from April.
  • The number one carrier, Maersk Line, is back on track, increasing 14.14% from April to May after showing a 4.05% decrease in April. Evergreen Line, on the contrary, recorded only a 0.44% increase in May TEU's after a large increase in April of 21.26%.

Methodology:
Zepol's data is derived from Bills of Lading entered into the Automated Manifest System. This information represents the number of House manifests entered by importers of waterborne containerized goods. This is the earliest indicator for trade data available for the previous month's import activity. The data excludes shipments from empty containers, excludes shipments labeled as freight remaining on board, and may contain other data anomalies.