Plunge in US imports accelerates; volumes near pre-COVID levels

(Freight Waves) The situation remains far from normal at some U.S. ports. There were still 18 container ships at anchor waiting for a berth in Savannah, Georgia, on Monday. But for the country overall, plummeting inbound cargo volumes are bringing imports close to where they were before the pandemic-induced spending splurge. Descartes reported Monday that 1,954,179 twenty-foot equivalent units of containerized cargo were imported in November. That’s down 12% month on month (m/m) and 19.4% year on year (y/y). It’s only 2.8% higher than imports in November 2019, pre-COVID, and down 37% from the May peak. Imports typically decline in November versus October — but not by this much. This year’s m/m November drop is the steepest recorded by Descartes since 2016.