Import shipment volume for October, measured in TEUs, decreased 2.72 percent from September and increased 12.84 percent over October 2009, according to Zepol Corporation, a trade intelligence company. The total number of shipments also fell 2.72 percent from September and rose 10.23 percent over last October.

Key statistics from this month's update:

1.    Year to date, total import shipments are up 14.21% over 2009 and down 2.38% from 2008. Year-to-date TEUs show similar numbers, up 16.17% over 2009 and down 0.23% from 2008. These numbers indicate that individual shipments are larger compared to previous years.

2.    Total shipments from Asia are down 4.53% from September and this is reflected in the statistics for U.S. port regions. Pacific ports were down 6.55%, while East Coast ports are up 3.29% and Gulf ports are up 0.71% in terms of total TEUs.

3.    While total volume is down, two steamship lines, Maersk and CMA, saw increases over September for total TEUs. The rest of the top ten carriers had their volumes to the United States shrink for the same time frame.

Zepol's data is derived from bills of lading entered into the Automated Manifest System. This information represents the number of house manifests entered by importers of waterborne containerized goods. This is the earliest indicator for trade data available for the previous month's import activity. The data includes shipments from empty containers, may overstate totals from transhipments, and may contain other data anomalies.

Source: Zepol Corporation