U.S. imports fell off a cliff in September

Multiple indicators show that U.S. imports fell off a cliff in September, the largest drop in nearly two years, and U.S. consumer demand growth was sluggish.

On Thursday, according to data compiled by Descartes from U.S. customs data compiled by the media, U.S. container imports in September fell 11% year-on-year to 2.21 million TEU containers, down 12.4% from August and lower than the level in September 2020.

From the perspective of historical decline, September fell by 310,000 TEU month-on-month, the largest month-on-month decline since the outbreak of the epidemic in February 2020

Second, imports from all three major U.S. coasts are in decline. Port volumes on all three U.S. coasts were down from August, with imports in Savannah, Georgia, down 21.5%, from 285,000 TEU to 223,900 TEU, according to Descartes.

U.S. imports of Asian goods also fell sharply. According to Descartes data, the total U.S. imports from China in September were 820,000 TEU, down 22.7% year-on-year and 18.3% lower than in August. The drop from China accounted for 61.5% of the month-on-month drop in the previous month.

Descartes executive vice president of industries and services Chris Jones said in an interview with American Cargo this week that the U.S. has made a considerable adjustment in imports. Jones said:

This is usually the time of year when imports fall seasonally, but not by as much. The situation has changed, and there is a larger inflection point. In some ways, this is not contradictory to other years (pre-pandemic), it’s just more severe.

Imports should slow for the rest of the year if the usual seasonal pattern remains unchanged from now, Jones added.

The American Retail Consortium expects imports to fall 9.4% in October from a year earlier, double the previous forecast for the month’s decline. In the Global Port Tracker report released a month ago, the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates jointly forecast that imports in October would fall 4.8% from a year earlier.

Hackett founder Ben Hackett said:

Growth in U.S. imports has lost steam, especially for goods from Asia. Recent capacity cuts reflect declining demand for imported goods from well-stocked retailers even as consumers continue to spend