YCD News --- Container exports from 18 Asian economies to the United States fell 20.1 percent in January to 1,468,276 TEUs, according to Japan Maritime Center (JMC) data.
Container traffic on this route has lost its growth momentum; it was very strong the year before, but has now contracted year-over-year for five consecutive months.
Exports from China to the United States fell 25.4 percent to 822,047 TEUs, from Taiwan by 28.5 percent to 48,124 TEUs and from Japan by 19.9 percent to 43,829 TEUs.
Meanwhile, exports from South Korea to the U.S. remained nearly unchanged at 91,981 TEUs.Exports from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries also fell 11.8 percent to 342,926 TEUs. In particular, container exports from Vietnam to the United States fell 12.5 percent to 166,550 TEUs, despite the country holding the largest share in the region.
Containers from Thailand decreased 3.7 percent to 70,005 TEUs, containers from Indonesia decreased 14.2 percent to 38,961 TEUs and containers from Malaysia decreased 23.6 percent to 29,681 TEUs.
In addition, container traffic from South Asia to the U.S. was very similar, with total volume down 4.5 percent to 113,069 TEUs.
Finally, container volumes from India to the U.S. remained nearly unchanged, declining 0.1 percent to 85,452 TEUs, but container volumes from Bangladesh declined 10 percent to 11,555 TEUs.