Where is the U.S. recession economists and pundits have been predicting for the past year? There’s no evidence of a recession yet in containerized imports, which continue to track — and remain slightly above — the pre-COVID “normal.”
Descartes reported Monday that imports at all U.S. ports totaled 2,081,793 twenty-foot equivalent units in June, up 6% from June 2019, pre-pandemic. Imports during the first half of this year topped 2019 levels by 2%. Last month’s imports were up 20% from the recent low in February.
Imports traditionally fall in June versus May (excluding the anomalous years during the pandemic). June’s imports edged down 0.7% versus May, a smaller month-on-month decline than usual.
