World’s Biggest Ports Hitting New Highs

The Nowcasts of global Kuehne + Nagel indicators (gKNi) show an upward trend in the world’s largest ports.

Despite recent trade tensions between the US and China, ports in the United States and Asia have hit record highs in May, 2018.

The data shows that ports in the US are experiencing particularly increased container volumes.

The real-time data collected by LogIndex, part of Kuehne + Nagel Group, indicates heavy traffic in top ports such as Los Angeles, Long Beach, New York or New Jersey.

Overall, cargo and container throughput in the world’s largest ports has risen by 3.2% year to date, with the biggest increase in Singapore (+6.2%) based on Nowcasts from LogIndex.

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So far, there are no direct ramifications owed to lingering trade tensions.

Other imports statistics imply a business-as-usual-mode - at first glance at least: The import of iron and steel reached an 8-months-high in April (+75% YoY), based on LogIndex’s analysis of Bills of Lading (BOL, in USD).

However, some commentators suggest that part of the strong growth is driven, in fact, by the trade tensions as anxious shippers rush to get their cargo to overseas markets.

World trade is inching up based on the country forecasts available for May and June.

There are regional differences, however.

Asia is very dynamic, in contrast to Europe, digesting the high euro during the first quarter.

The US, Australia and Canada are the fastest growing countries in the group of Advanced Economies, posting a year-over-year rate of 4.7% compared to 16.1% of Emerging Markets (LogIndex’s estimates for May).

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