Descartes releases April report on global shipping crisis: Record import volumes but reduced port congestion

Descartes Systems Group, the global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, released its April report on the ongoing global shipping crisis and analysis for logistics and supply chain professionals. The report shows stronger U.S. ocean container import volumes in March, but reduced wait times at top U.S. ports. However, China’s COVID lockdowns combined with recent geopolitical conflict suggest there may be continuing levels of disruption for global supply chains in 2022.

March continued the very strong start to 2022 with another monthly record for U.S. container import volume (see Figure 1). Container import volumes were up 11% from February 2022 to almost 2.6 million TEUs and up 1% from March 2021 and 44% from pre-pandemic March 2019. March was also the second highest import volume in history, only eclipsed by August 2021 which falls in peak season for ocean imports. 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

“Given the high TEU import volume in March, the overall decrease in port delays was positive news (see Figure 2),” said Chris Jones, EVP Industry & Services at Descartes. “The COVID-related lockdowns in China will have importers and logistics services providers managing their way around congested, disrupted and expensive global operations throughout 2022.”

Figure 2: Top 10 U.S. Port Average Wait Times (in days)

Source: Descartes Datamyne

The April report is Descartes’ ninth installment since beginning its analysis in August 2021.