The container shipping rush for the US holiday season has already come and gone, a top retail expert says.
Liner operators have historically experienced a busy period on the US-to-China route in the few months leading up to the US holiday shopping season, but that happened this summer in response to consumer behaviour, US National Retail Federation chief executive Matthew Shay said.
“We believe that a lot of that merchandise is baked in and it’s here already,” he said on Monday during Port of Los Angeles’ monthly press conference.
“The peak shipping season was probably this summer, specifically the month of August.”
He said that US consumers started doing their holiday shopping this summer after enduring two years of shipping delays as a result of the pandemic, so retailers had to order merchandise from Asia much earlier than they did in years past.
“We’ve seen the calendar evolve and change and inventory being pulled forward and sooner in the calendar year,” he said.
“A lot of that is because consumers are shopping differently, so we saw various retail sales events occurring in the month of July, and we saw promotions occurring earlier than that.
“Consumers have changed their behaviour.”
This new consumer approach to holiday shopping also pushed the port’s September container volume to 748,440 teu, up 5.4% from a year earlier, as retailers tried to keep pace with the early-shopping trend.
For the second consecutive month, Port of Los Angeles cargo volume increased compared to 2022, port executive director Gene Seroka said.
“September was another good month, with imports up 14% and exports jumping 55%.”
He said the major boost in port exports benefits the US economy by narrowing the trade gap between US and China.
“Additionally, export jobs on average pay more than work in other segments,” he said.
“With a long-term dockworker contract in place, we’re seeing more cargo shifting back to Los Angeles. The table is set to scale up as demand increases.”
The port saw a decline in container volume for much of this year as retailers diverted their imports to the US east coast to avoid shipping slowdowns caused by prolonged strife between unionised dockworkers and terminal employers on the west coast.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association ratified a new labour deal that will expire in July 2028 in early September after 16 months of negotiations.
