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.       

ACE and U.S. Customs in 2013: The Latest Regulations and Updates (Part 1 of a 3-Part Series)
    A Zepol guest blog by John M. Peterson, international trade/Customs law expert and partner at Neville Peterson LLP


    But, perhaps, not for much longer…

It is Customs’ Automated Commercial System (ACS), currently being transitioned into the agency’s online Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). Although the ACE transition is years behind schedule, and billions of dollars over budget, the operational parts of the system are one of the most powerful engines of business intelligence data in the world. As ACE comes closer to full operational capability, the system’s potential is breathtaking.

With a touch of a few buttons, Customs officials can see almost every aspect of a company’s import activities – the commodities they import, the identities of their suppliers, the prices they pay, the ports of entry they use, the names of their brokers, forwarders, carriers and service providers, and scores of other data points.

When Customs auditors come to review a company’s import operations, they bring with them a profile of the company that rivals, in terms of quality and detail, the finest work of Wall Street industry analysts.

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.       

U.S. imports for January increased fairly significantly from December by 6.9% and even had a slight rise from January of 2012 by 0.1%. Surprisingly, January imports have not been this high since 2007, which signals some steady rebounding growth for 2013.

The increase in imports mainly came from Asia, which rose in TEUs by 11.5%. Large export increases were seen more specifically from the countries of China and South Korea, which both rose almost 13%. You can read more about January'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.