On September 8th, Zepol completed the data for August in our U.S. Customs trade data tool,
TradeIQ. August's results show that imports are up from July by 3.1% marking a third straight month of growth, even though this is a decline in the growth rate from previous Augusts. Moreover, total containerized imports are still down 9.81% from the same time last year.
Below is a table showing the port regions of the world where shipments originated:
| Port Region |
August 2009
Shipments |
Percentage Change
over 2008 |
Percentage Change
over July 2009 |
| Asia |
545,020 |
-9.6% |
5.6% |
| Europe |
116,953 |
-10.2% |
0.4% |
Central America (includes Mexico)
|
53,904 |
-9.3% |
-2.1% |
| South America |
20,662 |
-0.9% |
1.3% |
| North America |
8,740 |
-26.0% |
-29.3% |
| Other |
8,120 |
1.9% |
-2.3% |
| Australia |
6,319 |
-13.8% |
-14.8% |
| Africa |
3,406 |
-38.1% |
-23.4% |
| Total |
763,124 |
-9.8% |
3.1% |
Asian ports are experiencing uneven growth. Vietnam's ports have steadily increased their business with the United States over the last year with over 4,500 shipments for the month; while not a major player in the region, other similarly sized port nations in the region barely grew or had negative growth in the same time period.
Below are the top 10 Asian countries by port shipment count growth from August 2008:
| Port Nation |
August 2009
Shipments |
Percentage Change
over 2008 |
Percentage Change
over July 2009 |
| Vietnam |
4,685 |
587.0% |
49.2% |
| Korea, South |
45,039 |
9.4% |
-6.5% |
| Hong Kong |
83,434 |
-5.8% |
16.7% |
| Malaysia |
6,556 |
-6.7% |
17.3% |
| China |
277,240 |
-8.4% |
6.6% |
| Japan |
27,115 |
-12.8% |
-4.5% |
| Taiwan |
47,352 |
-16.6% |
8.3% |
| Sri Lanka |
6,329 |
-33.1% |
-3.9% |
| Singapore |
22,808 |
-34.5% |
0.0% |
| India |
8,157 |
-39.5% |
-5.9% |
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.