U.S. import cargo volumes are projected to decline for the remainder of 2025, after a near-record summer surge driven by retailers stocking up ahead of rising tariffs and an unpredictable trade policy landscape. <\/p>\n
The Global Port Tracker<\/a> report, released Tuesday (Sept. 9) by the National Retail Federation<\/a> (NRF) and Hackett Associates<\/a>, indicates a cooling after a period of heightened activity.<\/p>\n Jonathan Gold<\/a>, NRF\u2019s vice president for supply chain and customs policy, highlighted the difficulty for businesses: \u201cRetailers have stocked up as much as they can ahead of tariff increases, but the uncertainty of U.S. trade policy is making it impossible to make the long-term plans that are critical to future business success.\u201d Gold added that these disruptions will ultimately lead to higher prices for American consumers.<\/p>\n The nation\u2019s major container ports handled 2.36 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in July, a 20.1% increase from June and a 1.8% rise year over year. This made July the second-busiest month on record, just shy of May 2022\u2019s 2.4 million TEU peak. <\/p>\n However, projections signal a downturn. August is forecast at 2.28 million TEU, down 1.7% year over year; September at 2.12 million TEU, down 6.8%; October at 1.95 million TEU, a 13.2% drop; and November at 1.74 million TEU, down 19.7%. December is projected to be the slowest month since March 2023, at 1.7 million TEU, a 20.1% decrease. The full year 2025 is forecast to reach 24.7 million TEU, a 3.4% decline from 2024\u2019s total of 25.5 million TEU.<\/p>\n The report detailed a complex tariff environment, including reciprocal tariffs globally and broader sectoral tariffs. While a federal appeals court ruled against President Donald Trump\u2019s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act for tariffs, the duties remain in effect pending a Supreme Court appeal. <\/p>\n Separately, a tariff increase on China was delayed by 90 days to Nov. 10 for trade negotiations, and a new 25% tariff on India took effect in late August, raising its additional tariff rate to 50%.<\/p>\n The threat and implementation of tariffs since the beginning of the Trump administration have led to economic uncertainty across the board. PYMNTS previously reported<\/a> that many companies have wrestled with pricing decisions as a result of tariffs, and farmers across the country have slowed or halted<\/a> grain exports until they have a firmer understanding of how and when tariffs would be implemented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. import cargo volumes are projected to decline for the remainder of 2025, after a near-record summer surge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101,90423,105,3,3300,759,3301],"class_list":["post-145901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-global-port-tracker","tag-imports","tag-news","tag-pymnts-news","tag-tariffs","tag-whats-hot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}