Descartes Systems Group, the global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, released its March report on the ongoing global shipping crisis and analysis for logistics and supply chain professionals. The report shows continued strong U.S. ocean container import volumes in February and strong economic indicators that, combined with recent geopolitical conflict, suggest continuing levels of disruption for global supply chains in 2022.
February continued the very strong start to 2022 with another record for container import volume. Container import volume was down 3% from January 2022, but up 12% from January 2021 and 38% from February 2020. Considering that February this year was 3 days shorter than January, which equates to 9.7% fewer days to process shipments, it was actually a stronger import month than January. Another month effectively exceeding the 2.4 million container import mark indicates that the chronic supply chain disruptions that importers and the logistics community have been experiencing are not abating in the short-term.
“The latest reported personal consumption expenditures show strong demand for goods, especially durable goods which rose 9.7%. This will put more pressure on the U.S. logistics infrastructure in 2022; however, the consistent increase in inflation and the Russia/Ukraine conflict could dampen demand but cause other challenges,” said Chris Jones, EVP Industry & Services at Descartes. “We believe importers and logistics services providers will face a congested, disrupted, expensive and frustrating 2022 and must strategically consider the longer-term impacts of the ongoing crisis in global shipping.”
The March report is Descartes’ eighth installment since beginning its analysis in August 2021. These reports, helps learn more about the key economic and logistics factors driving the global shipping crisis, and review strategies to help address it in the near-, short- and long-term.
Figure 1. U.S. Container Import Volume Year-over-Year Comparison
Descartes releases March report on global shipping crisis. Image: Descartes
Figure 2: Personal Consumption Metrics
Descartes releases March report on global shipping crisis. Image: Descartes