US importers are starting to stock up!
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According to reports from Reference News Network, American retailers are placing orders overseas in advance. The reasons are shipping disruptions, rising freight rates and related geopolitical risks.
Although Red Sea shipping prices have been widely believed to have peaked, prices remain abnormally high in the short to medium term. Priest, president of the American Footwear Distributors and Retailers Association, believes that current shipping costs are higher than they were more than two years ago.
According to Norwegian freight data provider Kersneyta, the short-term contract price for shipping a container from Asia to the U.S. West Coast was ,806 on July 17, more than four times the same period last year.
But importers are not deterred
In June this year, the total container import volume of the Port of Seattle and Tacoma increased by 43% year-on-year, while the increase in May was 33%. The arrival volume in these two months is almost equivalent to the container import volume during the peak shipping season in September and October last year.
In the first half of 2024, the Port of Los Angeles handled 4.7 million 20-foot containers (TEU), an increase of 14.4% over the same period last year. The Port of Long Beach also set a record for total throughput in June, with inbound container throughput being the highest since mid-2022. In the first half of 2024, the Port of Long Beach’s total container volume increased by 15% compared with the same period last year.
This also means that the peak shipping season on the US West Coast has arrived early.
In addition to the Red Sea region, drought has also triggered obstructions in the Panama Canal; worker strikes are likely to break out at ports along the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast this fall. The global supply chain is constantly issuing early warnings. U.S. importers have to take precautions to guard against greater shipping capacity risks.
These imported goods mainly involve clothing, furniture and electronic products.
In addition, uncertainty about tariffs has also kept importers busy stocking up. The Trump campaign is proposing higher tariffs, which has many members of the National Footwear Distributors and Retailers Association considering shipping products into the U.S. before tariffs are raised.
Some people in the United States expressed concerns: "If Trump wins, a 10% tariff will be generally imposed on imported goods, and tariffs may be added on imported goods from China. This may change the pattern and future of the Port of Los Angeles. The additional tariffs will directly affect the U.S. Retail prices, especially in the current context of high inflation.”
However, some analysts believe that importers hoarding goods in large quantities may further cause inventory backlog in the future.
