THE container market continued to show strength in March as the pull forward ahead of the Lunar New Year continues to pay dividends at the ports.

According to the monthly report by Descartes, US container import volumes in March climbed by 0.4 per cent from February and over 15 per cent from March 2023. The year-over-year gains can be explained by the timing of the Lunar New Year: This year's holiday occurred nearly three weeks later than in 2023.

Descartes reported that US container import volumes in March totalled 2.145 million TEU, the third-highest March since 2019, trailing only the Covid-19 pandemic-induced surge in imports in 2021 and 2022.

The first half of the month experienced the strongest boost to imports. Descartes reported that total container imports in that period were over 22 per cent higher than they were a year ago, reports New York's FreightWaves.

The Logistics Managers' Index reported that inventory levels grew faster in the first half of March than the back half, lending credence to the growth in imports during the first half of the month.

Additionally, with the timing of the Lunar New Year later in February, the impacts started showing up domestically in the latter parts of March.

Despite talk of West Coast ports clawing back market share from East Coast ports due to challenges at the Panama Canal and ongoing labour negotiations with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) labour union, it has failed to materialize. In fact, according to the most recent Descartes report, the top five East Coast ports grew market share during March and now control over 44 per cent of overall import market share.

The top ten ports in total have lost share as a whole as supply chains have become more diversified the past few years. That continued in March. The total market share of container imports handled by the ten largest ports in the country dipped by 0.3 percentage points month over month to 84.2 per cent. This time last year, the ten largest ports in the country handled over 90 per cent of total import volume.

The ports where volume grew the most were actually on the West Coast, despite the top five ports relinquishing market share in March. The Ports of Oakland, California, and Tacoma, Washington, experienced the largest gains month over month, with imports growing by 6.6 per cent and 18.9 per cent, respectively.

The Port of Los Angeles saw import volumes decline by 7.8 per cent month on month, as TEU dropped by over 30,000 for the second consecutive month.

On the East Coast, it was more of a mixed bag. The Port of New York and New Jersey experienced growth of 4.5 per cent month on month. Farther south, the ports of Norfolk, Virginia, and Charleston, South Carolina, saw import volumes grow by 5.6 per cent and 4.9 per cent over the previous month, respectively.

Descartes highlighted how the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore at the end of the month did have an impact on overall import volumes. In total, the Port of Baltimore's import volumes dropped by 15.7 per cent month on month, according to the report.