May imports increased for the second consecutive month, rising 3% compared to April, but decreasing 2.2% compared to May of last year. The United States imported 1.55 million TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) in May, which is a record for the year.

“For the first two months of the year imports were up 7% over 2012, but in the last five months imports are only up 0.04% overall,“ says Zepol’s CEO Paul Rasmussen. “With holiday orders being placed soon, we’ll likely see increased imports in the coming months.”

You can read more about May's imports in our Press Release Here.

 
Methodology:
Zepol’s data is derived from Bills of Lading entered into U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). This information represents the number of House manifests entered by importers of waterborne vessel goods. This is the earliest indicator for trade data available for the previous month’s import activity. The data excludes shipments from empty containers, excludes shipments labeled as Freight Remaining on Board (FROB), and may contain other data anomalies.       

April imports have skyrocketed by 22.7% from March and are slightly above April of 2012 by 1.3%. Imports haven't been this high in the month of April since 2007 and there hasn't been this dramatic of an increase month-to-month in over a year.

“So far this year, U.S. imports are about 1% higher than last year and over 4% higher than 2011,” states Zepol’s CEO Paul Rasmussen, “Although 2013 is still 5% below 2007, the highest year recorded for ocean imports, 2013 could still turn out to have the highest import volume the United States has seen in the last five years.”

You can read more about April's imports in our Press Release Here.

 
Methodology:
Zepol’s data is derived from Bills of Lading entered into U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). This information represents the number of House manifests entered by importers of waterborne vessel goods. This is the earliest indicator for trade data available for the previous month’s import activity. The data excludes shipments from empty containers, excludes shipments labeled as Freight Remaining on Board (FROB), and may contain other data anomalies.       

According to Zepol's U.S. Customs trade data tool, TradeIQ™, total inbound shipments for April 2012 are up 9.8% from March and 8.7% from April of last year. This is the second consecutive month with high import increases and, by looking at previous years' trends, we could potentially see even greater import volume throughout the summer.

The table below shows trends in port regions of the world where shipments originated:


Below is the trend of the last 13 months showing total TEU volume and shipments as seen in Zepol's monthly vessel import press release:


Methodology:
Zepol's data is derived from Bills of Lading entered into the Automated Manifest System. This information represents the number of House manifests entered by importers of waterborne vessel goods. This is the earliest indicator for trade data available for the previous month’s import activity. The data excludes shipments from empty containers, excludes shipments labeled as freight remaining on board, and may contain other data anomalies.

With Mother’s Day right around the corner, Zepol thought it would be fun to trend the top gift for Mom, FLOWERS!...and give a friendly reminder not to forget that special Mother in your life this Sunday.

Fresh cut flowers (HTS 0603) have a blossom in imports every year in April and May, which we can attribute to Easter and of course Mother’s Day. In 2011, imports of flowers skyrocketed from March by 113% in April and 34% in May.

If you’re wondering what type of flower to buy, you can’t go wrong with roses. The rose has the highest spike around Mother’s day and an average import value of $4.44/kg. The United States imports over $300 million worth of roses every year, more than any other flower.

Chrysanthemums, alstroemeria (Peruvian lily), and carnations are the other leading ladies and show huge sprouts in Spring imports; they rose from March of 2011 by 90% in April and another 19% in May (see graph above).

Buying flowers for Mother’s Day doesn’t seem to be a wilting trend, so remember whatever flower you buy for Mom this week, she is totally worth it!