Descartes Systems Group has released its January Global Shipping Report, highlighting the continuing a trend of higher year-on-year container volumes throughout 2024.
December 2024 U.S. container import volumes closed at 2,367,271 TEU, just shy of the 2.4 million TEU threshold that has typically strained port capacity. Despite elevated volumes, overall transit delays decreased across the top 10 U.S. ports.
Following two months of volume declines, December imports from China were up by 1.7% to 902,519 TEUs and by 14.5% over December 2023, highlighting the continued strength of U.S.-China trade. The January update of the logistics metrics monitored by Descartes continues to show robust container import volume performance.
However, U.S. importers may face supply chain challenges in early 2025, including potential tariff changes under the incoming Trump administration, ongoing negotiations between USMX and ILA, the Chinese Lunar New Year and geopolitical instability in the Middle East.
With a slight 0.1% dip from November, December volumes reached 2,367,271 TEUs, marking the third time in history when imports for the month have exceeded 2.3 million TEUs. It also marks the second-highest December volume recorded, trailing only December 2021 volumes (2,389,060 TEUs) by 0.9% or 21,789 TEUs.
Compared to December 2023, volumes were up by 12.4% and a remarkable 24.3% from pre-pandemic December 2019. Overall, total container imports for 2024 (28,196,462 TEUs) increased 13% over 2023 (24,957,640 TEUs).
Figure 1. U.S. Container Import Volume Year-over-Year Comparison (Source: Descartes Datamyne™)
With fluctuations driven by seasonal factors and market conditions related to the timing of the holiday season, the month-over-month change between November and December has varied historically from slight declines to low growth, with 2018 as the exception due to tariffs taking effect in 2019. December 2024 volume maintained this pattern with a marginal 0.1% decrease over November.
Figure 2: November to December U.S. Container Import Volume Comparison (Source: Descartes Datamyne™)
“Throughout 2024, we saw healthy container import volumes, which underscored the strength of the U.S. economy,” said Jackson Wood, Director, Industry Strategy at Descartes. “December import volumes did not meaningfully reflect much impact from potential tariffs and labor unrest. We saw another month of exceptional import volume performance in December while port transit time delays remained relatively stable.”
