The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Economics => Topic started by: Ptarmigan on October 12, 2022, 08:13:05 PM
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US imports sink in September, suffer steepest drop since 2020 lockdowns
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/us-imports-plunge-in-september-suffer-steepest-drop-since-2020-lockdowns
First came the pullback in spot shipping rates from their historic peak. Then came reports of plunging Asian bookings and mass retail order cancellations, with spot rates falling even faster. Now, all of this is finally showing up at America’s ports.
According to Descartes, which aggregates U.S. Customs data, inbound volumes to all U.S. ports totaled 2,215,731 twenty-foot equivalent units in September. That’s down 11% year on year and 12.4% from August.
Last month’s imports came in below September 2020 levels, albeit still up 9% from September 2019, pre-COVID. Imports this September were down 15.5% versus May, the month inbound volumes hit an all-time high, according to Descartes data.
September’s 313,311-TEU decline versus August was the steepest month-to-month drop recorded by Descartes since the 364,454-TEU plunge in February 2020 versus the month before, back when Chinese authorities first locked down Wuhan.
Imports in America have a steep decline. It is even stepper than in 2020.
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Ok , what's it mean.
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I'm no analyst, but I'd posit that the Covid lockdowns in China certainly play a part in the import slowdown -- and that may help the trade imbalance as it were. But overall, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the overall RECESSION that SharterJoe and his thugs refuse to admit that we're in also plays a part.
Which partly explains why buying a new car these days is damn near impossible and HUGELY expensive.