Descartes Releases May Report on Global Shipping Crisis: Another Month of Record Container Volumes as China Lockdowns Not Materially Impacting U.S. Imports
ATLANTA, Georgia, May 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Descartes Systems Group (Nasdaq: DSGX) (TSX:DSG), the global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, released its May report on the ongoing global shipping crisis and analysis for logistics and supply chain professionals. The report shows another record month of U.S. ocean container import volumes in April, but reduced wait times at top U.S. ports. The anticipated impact of China’s COVID lockdowns has not yet materialized in the overall volume of U.S. container imports. The combination of high volume, China lockdowns and global conflict continues to point to challenging global supply chain performance in 2022.
April continued the very strong start to 2022 at 2.47 million container imports, setting another monthly record for U.S. volumes (see Figure 1). Container import volumes were down 4% from March 2022 but could be considered on par with March due to the Easter holiday and the month of April being a day shorter. In contrast to previous years, however, April 2022 volumes were up 4% from April 2021 and 28% from pre-pandemic April 2019. Another month effectively exceeding the 2.4 million TEU mark indicates that the chronic supply chain disruptions (e.g., delays, variability, etc.) importers and the logistics community have been experiencing are not abating in the short-term.
Figure 1. U.S. Container Import Volume Year-over-Year Comparison
Source: Descartes Datamyne™
“As imports from China were almost 1% higher in April 2022 versus April 2021, one can conclude that, despite the lockdowns, a large number of goods were still moving out of China in the mid-February to mid-March time frame,” said Chris Jones, EVP Industry & Services at Descartes. “While container import volumes were again at record levels, April showed continued reduction in port wait times although the majority are still experiencing delays in excess of 10 days (see Figure 2).”
Figure 2: Average Wait Times (in days) at Top 10 U.S. Ports
| Port | March | April |
| Los Angeles | 12.4 | 10.3 |
| Long Beach | 10.3 | 9.7 |
| New York/New Jersey | 15.0 | 14.7 |
| Savannah | 10.6 | 10.7 |
| Norfolk | 15.1 | 14.1 |
| Houston | 12.7 | 11.6 |
| Charleston | 18.0 | 13.4 |
| Oakland | 23.8 | 13.8 |
| Seattle | 8.8 | 11.5 |
| Tacoma | 12.0 | 11.4 |
Source: Descartes Datamyne
The May report is Descartes’ tenth installment since beginning its analysis in August 2021. To read past reports, 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, visit Descartes’ Global Shipping Crisis Resource Center.
