Back by popular demand, Zepol's lastest report highlights trade activity for the top 20 U.S. ports. The annual report provides detailed import information for each port and compares trends to the previous year as well as sheds light upon potential future developments.

Four Key Insights Found in the Report:

1. The top port in the U.S. by a landslide, the Port of Los Angeles, surpassed all other ports by over 1 million TEUs (twenty-foot-containers) and over 500,000 shipments.
   
2. Based on TEU volume, 11 of the top 20 ports posted positive import growth from 2011 to 2012.
3. The Port of Tacoma saw the greatest growth in 2012, with a 29% increase in inbound TEUs from 2011. 
4. The top 20 ports account for 97% of all TEU imports into the United States.

"Zepol’s latest Port Report provides insights for transportation companies, importers and exporters, steamship lines, and suppliers," says Zepol’s CEO Paul Rasmussen. "More recently, trade professionals have a growing need to know what’s happening at the ports and this report gives great detail on last year's port activity from a performance standpoint and a good picture of the movement of goods in the United States in 2012."

Zepol is thrilled to announce that phase two of their TradeIQ Export tool is now launched. The enhancement included adding a significant amount of U.S. export bills of lading to the tool. TradeIQ Export previously included export data for four carriers, but now includes 20 carriers. Users can currently search through over 2 million bills of lading, with thousands more being added daily. The company launched phase one in August and, after much collaboration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has completed phase two.

"Zepol was a pioneer over a decade ago with import data and our latest export update continues that trend today," says Zepol’s CEO Paul Rasmussen. "As one of the top requests we receive from customers, offering more U.S. export data is a big step forward for our company and customers. We look forward to being the leader in this space and have more exciting enhancements planned for this product in the near future."

TradeIQ Export makes it easy for subscribers to view who is exporting from the United States, what products are being exported, and what countries are receiving the goods. The information is used to generate new sales leads, view competitors’ export activities, and analyze the current marketplace. The interface has multiple search fields, Excel downloads, trending, and more, allowing users to efficiently view and extract exactly the information they need in order to make informed business decisions.

In light of Valentine’s Day this week, we here at Zepol wanted to take a look at how much ‘love’ will be given out this year compared to last year. Using Zepol’s TradeIQ Import, we looked at imports of Valentine-themed gifts, from cards, to stuffed animals and candy. The results? This holiday is looking very optimistic! Container imports of Valentine gifts increased by over 10% this holiday season compared to last year. Let the graph below illustrate for itself.

We know you’re just dying to find out, where is all of this ‘love’ coming from? The majority, not surprisingly, is sourced from China. In fact, more than 70% of Valentine-themed gifts come from China. Smaller amounts of goods (mostly apparel) are sourced from Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Nicaragua.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Zepol!

According to Zepol's online database of U.S. ocean imports, TradeIQ™, imports in November have reached the lowest levels the United States has seen since February. November TEUs (twenty-foot-containers) decreased 12.8% from October and 15.2% from November of last year. There was a significant slump in imports from Asian countries by 18% from November of 2011, but European countries had only a slight dip in imports by 6.5%.

It's unique to see U.S. imports so low in November, but then again, with Hurricane Sandy torturing the east coast and an eight-day labor strike at the Ports of L.A. and Long Beach, the last month and a half has seen some unexpected and disrupting events...So the real question is will December continue the downward slope we've seen since July, or rise above the mediocre November?

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.