NEW YORK: U.S. containerized imports from South America are rising by double digits while U.S. exports to the region stagnate, a recent trend that is narrowing the trade lane’s north-south imbalance and emboldening carriers to seek higher rates.
Hapag-Lloyd this month announced a July 19 general rate increase of $325 per 20-foot-equivalent unit and $500 per 40-footer on shipments from the East Coast of South America to U.S. Gulf, U.S. West Coast, Mexico, Caribbean and Central American ports. Mediterranean Shipping Co. announced a $250-per-TEU increase on shipments from the East Coast of South America to other points in the Americas.
U.S. imports from the East Coast of South America jumped 25.2 percent year-over-year in May, according to PIERS, a sister product of JOC.com within IHS Maritime & Trade. It was the sixth consecutive monthly increase in northbound shipments, which were up 10.8 percent year-to-date through May.
Exports to the East Coast of South America declined 14.7 percent year-over-year in April, the latest month for which numbers were available, and were down 5.6 percent through the first four months of the year. U.S. import from the region totaled 36,798 twenty-foot-equivalent units in May, almost even with the 36,826 TEUs of exports.
IHS Senior Economist Mario O. Moreno has increased his forecast growth for U.S. containerized imports from the East Coast of South America to 7.9 percent from the 3.4 percent he had projected in the March issue of the JOC Container Shipping Outlook.
Growth in U.S. imports from the East Coast of South America have been driven by shipments of granite, lumber and paper and paperboard, which have benefited from the dollar’s strength against the Brazilian real and other regional currencies, and from a strengthening U.S. housing markets.
The dollar’s strength, however, has cut into U.S. exports of commodities such as plastic resins and paper. Moreno forecasts U.S. exports to the region will decline 3.7 percent this year before rising 7.7 percent next year.
“Varying degrees of political stability and corruption, combined with reduced global demand and limited domestic consumption, will continue to weigh on sales of U.S. goods in the region,” Moreno said.
U.S. imports from the West Coast of South America declined 6.5 percent year-over-year in May, to 38,256 TEUs, and were up 3.5 percent year-to-date through May. U.S. exports to the region fell 13.7 percent year-over-year in May, to 38,343 TEUs, and 1.5 percent through the first five months of 2015.
Moreno forecasts U.S. imports from the West Coast of South America will rise 8.5 percent in 2015 and again in 2016, while U.S. exports to the region drop 3.1 percent this year before rising 2.1 percent in 2016.
