Holiday Season Shipping

Although the December holidays are not yet here, retailers in the US are currently importing a majority of their goods from overseas in anticipation of the upcoming holiday shopping season. This occurs every year around this time. And many of these retailers depend on the best freight forwarders to help make their international shipping as efficient as possible.

A new report suggested that the importing of holiday season cargo is expected to increase in 2013. According to the report, there could be an anticipated 16.2 Million TEUs imported in 2013, up 2.5% from 15.8 Million TEUs in 2012. Retail importers in the United States are very excited about this news. Although the volume of containers being imported does not reflect the value of the cargo inside the container (and the value impacts retail sales revenue), this is very encouraging news. It is also predicated that holiday spending is expected to increase more than 11% this year.

Many analysts consider this report to be above their earlier low expectations that ocean freight imports were down after a lackluster start to 2013. Part of the reason that US imports were lower during the start of 2013 is due to higher than usual ocean freight rates. One thing for shippers and retailers to consider during this time of the year is the usual peak season surcharge on imports that are shipped from Asia to the United States. This peak season surcharge is nothing new and is expected almost every year at this time, in anticipation of the holiday shopping season.