Import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports is returning to normal levels as officials prepare to count votes on ratification of a new West Coast labor agreement that ended months of uncertainty, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

A roof-raising trade gap in March highlighted concerns that the rise of the dollar against other currencies was weakening the economy, chipping away at the ability of American manufacturers to compete abroad while encouraging more imports to fill retailers' shelves.

The 2014 retail landscape could be characterized as bipolar, according to the 5th Annual State of the Retail Supply Chain Report from Auburn University and the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

Import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to rise 8 percent this month over the same time last year as West Coast ports continue to recover from a backlog of cargo that built up before a tentative new labor agreement was signed, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

There was a time when ocean carriers fashioned themselves as providers of premium, door-to-door transportation. Not anymore.

More than 4,400 ships bring nearly $400bn worth of goods through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach every year, a crucial link in the global supply chain of factories, warehouses, docks, highways and rail lines. Most blue-collar workers along the chain have seen their wages slashed with the quick rise of global trade. But the longshoremen who move the goods the shortest distance, between ship and shore, have shrewdly protected pay that trumps that of many white-collar managers.

If we're to believe the big container lines, ever-larger ships are the remedy for their financial woes. Why, then, are so many of them still losing money?

Import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to rise an unusually high 16.9 percent this month over the same time last year as West Coast ports begin to dig out from a backlog of cargo that built up during just-concluded contract negotiations with dockworkers, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.