b'2American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comWill retailing supply-chainT o p10 0N o r T hA m e r i c A Nease in 2022? i m p o r T e r s&e x p o r T e r s2 2Itsdoubtfulascongestionhasyettoabateand COVID is still with us.By Peter Buxbaum, AJOTThe holiday shipping and shopping seasons started ear-lier than usual this year and, thankstosupply-chaincon-gestion,theyrestillongo-ing.Importers,facedwith productionshutdownsand portdelays,endeavoredto bringinholidaymerchan-diseearlierthanusualthis year.Shoppersstartedhit-tingstoresearlierthaneverJonathan Gold, NRFs VPthis yearhalf started before November,accordingtotheThere is still a significant NationalRetailFederationamount of holiday merchandise (NRF)inanefforttopro- outthere,headded.Bring-curetheirdesiredgiftsforingholidaymerchandisein friends and loved ones. (EASEcontinued onJAXPORTs Blount Island Marine Terminal bustles with cargo activity as deepening of the shipping channel to 47 feet Andtheextraordinarypage 13) moves forward. (See Florida Ports section starting on page 16)conditionsof2021arestill with us. The number of ships waiting to enter the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach increasedtoanotherrecord level in early January, accord-ingtoareportfromDes- Time to TransformcartesSystemsGroup,and portdelaysinLos Angeles, Long Beach, and New York/NewJerseyallincreasedin December,despitethefactNew rail infrastructure, innovative data solutions, moving to 24/7 operationsthatretailimportgrowththe Port of Long Beach is working to meet todays challenges while preparing started to moderate. Increases returned to single digits in thefor tomorrow. We are the Port of Choice.fallof2021incontrastto the overall 2021 increase of 18.3%andshouldremain therethisyear.NRFfore-castsJanuary2022imports to increase 8.6 percent year-over-year; February, 4.2 per-cent; and April, 2.5 percent, whileMarchandMayare expected to show downticks. But,astheDescartesreport noted,WhileDecember wasthesecondmonthina row with declining container import volumes, it was still a record month. T heL ong andW indingR oadSomeofthegoodson board ships awaiting berths at major U.S. container ports still containlate-arrivingholiday merchandise. Those goods will bearrivingonstoreshelves withsubstantiallymarked-downpricetags,asretailers seek to ditch those products to make room for new inventories ofapparel,footwear,athletic gear, and home goods for the next buying season. Savvy con-sumers will descend on stores to scoop up those bargains, so, in a sense, the holiday shopping season is still with us.Thehugeincreasesin imports weve seen have lev-eled out, but volume is still at high levels, said Jonathan Gold,theNRFsvicepresi-dentforsupplychainand customspolicy.Wehope the system will find a way to catchup,butthereismuch thatremainstobedoneto clear out port backlogs.'