The remainder of this year will be strong, as November was estimated at 2.01 million TEUs, a 14% YoY increase. December, generally slow because most holiday merchandise already is on the shelves, is forecast at 1.83 million TEUs, a 6.1% increase over last year. Those numbers, NRF says, will bring 2018 to a total of 21.8 million TEUs, a 6.5% increase over last year’s record 20.5 million.
Even before President Donald Trump slapped a 10% tariff on more than $200 billion in Chinese goods in September, retailers ordered goods at a rapid rate to beat the tariff that would further hamper operations and the bottom line.