Import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to increase 3.6 percent this month over the same time last year as retailers begin to bring in merchandise for the holiday season, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. Imports for the year are expected to be up 4.2 percent over 2014.

Following the Panama Canal expansion in 2016, up to 10 percent of container traffic to the U.S. from East Asia could shift from West Coast ports to East Coast ports by 2020, according to research conducted by the Boston Consulting Group and C.H. Robinson. Rerouting that volume is equivalent to building a port roughly double the size of the ports in Savannah and Charleston.

Import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports has returned to normal levels following ratification of a new West Coast labor agreement, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handled 39 percent of U.S. container imports in 2002, but that figure fell to 32 percent by 2013, according to U.S. census data. They have lost business to competitors at a time when, overall, global trade is booming and imports are rising at all ports, including L.A. and Long Beach. And the ports are losing out to others that can handle larger vessels.