U.S. imports in August are the second-highest month for twenty-foot container volume in 2013, according to Zepol, a trade intelligence company. The United States imported nearly 1.61 million TEUs in August, which is 5% less than July's 1.69 million, but a half a percentage higher than August of last year.

U.S. vessel imports have declined almost 3 percent from May to June. Imports are also 1.6 percent below TEUs (twenty foot containers) seen in June of 2012. This year, U.S. ocean imports had a steady increase of 1 percent compared to the volume seen in 2012, but with the low June numbers that percentage has changed. Zepol has found that in the first six months of this year, compared to January through June of 2012, import volume is virtually stagnant. In fact, 2013 is down 0.3 percent, if you want to be picky.

U.S. import shipment volume for March, measured in TEUs, decreased by 15 percent from February and by 12.5 percent from March of 2012. While February imports were unusually high, March imports were unusually low. In fact, imports for the month of March have not been this low since 2009.