The ten largest US ports showed 17.5% drop in inbound container volume during November, sharply eclipsing October’s 13.5% decline. That is the largest overall monthly decline since the financial crisis and likely the largest ever single month contraction. It marks the third straight month of rapidly expanding year over year declines that begun with August’s modest 0.6% decline grew to a 5.3% decline in September prior to the widening gaps of the last two months.
West Coast ports drove that overall weakness with staggering decrease of 26.0%. That was for the second consecutive month of greater decline than any drop experienced in the early months of the pandemic.
