On January 9th, Zepol completed the data for December in our U.S. Customs trade data tool, TradeIQ. Import shipments increased in December by 1.83% from November. However, that little ray of sunshine could not make up for what comparatively was a dismal economic year. In fact, 2009 saw the fewest number of import shipments since 2004 and was down 12.48% compared to 2008 and 16.65% when compared to 2007.

Below is a table showing port regions of the world where shipments originated:


In continuation of the analysis seen in the November Update when looking at a year-to-year comparison of the top ten most active ports in 2009, it becomes remarkably apparent that the brunt of this recession is being borne by the traditionally most active ports. Only one port, Seattle, WA, saw increased imports from 2008, and while only the port of New York, NY saw increased imports from 2007, but their competitors in their respective regions saw massive declines; for example, Tacoma, WA imports dropped by 29.74% from 2008 and 34.97% from 2007 while Newark, NJ dropped by 13.35% from 2008 and 16.09% from 2007.

Below are the top 10 ports in the U.S. by shipment count:
Zepol's U.S. Customs trade data is taken from Bills of Lading entered into the Automated Manifest System. The information represents the number of House manifests entered by importers of waterborne containerized goods. This indicator is the earliest data available for the previous month’s trade activity.