U.S. import volume in October, measured in twenty-foot-containers, is down 6.8 percent from September and another 4.8 percent from October of last year. This is total of 1,433,446 containers imported.

Container service reliability across all trades fell marginally in the third quarter with the percentage of on-time ship arrivals dropping to 73.5 percent, down from the record high of 75.7 percent set in the second quarter, according to Drewry's quarterly report Carrier Performance Insight.

Containerized imports in Los Angeles increased 3.38 percent in September year-over-year, reaching the highest total of 2012. Imports in neighboring Long Beach edged up 0.7 percent over last September.

U.S. import shipment volume for September, measured in TEUs, is down 3.6 percent from August, but is up from September of 2011 by 2.6 percent. Imports of TEUs shifted from more than 1.6 million last month to 1.55 million in September. The downward trend of the last two months of Q3 indicates that the peak month for U.S. imports in 2012 will most likely be July. For the past three years the month of August has seen the highest vessel imports, but this year the surge in goods for the holiday season seems to have come even earlier in Q3.

Import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to increase 9.9 percent in October as merchants wrap up the annual shipping cycle for holiday merchandise, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

India is changing, growing and shifting its weight in anticipation of greater maritime independence as a result of much-needed port and terminal development.

Aging infrastructure for marine ports, inland waterways and airports threatens more than a million U.S. jobs according to a new Failure to Act report from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

Despite pending regulations, most shipowners have refused to commit to an onboard ballast water treatment system. Yet port-based treatment has the potential to be a temporary or even permanent solution.

Zepol Corporation, the leading trade intelligence company,reports that U.S. import shipment volume for August, measured in TEUs, is down from July by 3 percent and 0.3 percent from August 2011. It's unusual to see a drop in imports from July to August, since the trend for the past three years has been a spike in the month of August. In 2010 and 2011, August was actually the peak month of the year for TEU imports.