CONTAINER freight volumes at the ports of New York-New Jersey, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Savannah, Houston, Norfolk, Charleston, Seattle and Oakland were down 3.8 per cent in September year on year, reports Reuters.
Total volume through these nine major ports, which handle most US exports and imports, amounted to 2.67 million TEU from 2.77 million in September 2021 and 2.85 million in September 2020.
Most ports blamed the drop on manufacturers and retailers cutting orders to reduce inventories as well as rotation from goods to services spending after the Covid crisis.
The same slowdown was evident on the railways, where the number of containers originated fell to 1.09 million in September 2022 from 1.14 million in September 2021 and 1.22 million in September 2020.
Parcel delivery services experienced an even steeper decline with FedEx reporting US deliveries down 10 per cent year on year in the three months from June to August.
Real consumer spending on merchandise in the three months from July to September 2022 was down 3.5 per cent compared with the peak between April and June 2021, after adjusting for normal seasonal variations.
US manufacturers reported barely any increase in activity in October, with the weakest reading in the Institute for Supply Management's business survey since the pandemic and before that the mid-cycle slowdown in 2015/16.
The economies of the United Kingdom and the euro zone have already slipped into recession during the third quarter of 2022 and China's manufacturing activity is contracting.
US manufacturers and the rest of the economy is following the same trajectory, albeit the slowdown is likely to be shallower and shorter than in other regions which are more exposed to high energy.