Retailers' early US back-to-school sales hasten peak ocean shipping season
Retailers account for half of US container import volumes
Goods also moving earlier due to Suez Canal disruptions and new tariffs
Early peak season could mean early end to soaring freight rates
By Lisa Baertlein
LOS ANGELES, July 19 (Reuters) -Retailers Walmart WMT.N, Target TGT.N and Shein kicked off back-to-school sales early to stop Amazon.com's Prime Day event from siphoning U.S.sales of backpacks and laptops, helping advance the peak ocean shipping season by two months and boost already-highfreight rates.
"It looks like this year, July is in fact the peak of peak (season), instead of the beginning," said Stephanie Loomis, Rhenus Logistics' head of ocean freight for the Americas.
Retailers account forroughly half of U.S. container import volumes. The ocean shipping industry handles about 80% of global trade.
Goods are moving earlier than normal since late last year, when Houthi rebel attacks near the Suez Canal trade shortcut forced cargo vessels to take the longer route around Africa. Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk MAERSKb.CO, a top container shipping provider, said on Wednesday that Red Sea disruptions have cascaded beyond the hard-hit Far East and Europe trade routes to its entire global network.
Nike NKE.N executives have said they imported to the U.S.shipments of athletic shoes and apparel during the March-May quarter that theyoriginally planned for the June-August quarter. Members of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, who account for 95% of U.S. footwear sales, are among the importers who have accelerated shipments, said Matt Priest, the industry group's CEO.
Some importers have also sped up timelines to beat higher costs from new tariffs on computer chips and electric-vehicle batteries, or to avoid upheavals during labor talks covering dockworkers on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf of Mexico, industry experts said.
The early demand surge helped propel the off-contract cost of sendinga standard 40-foot (12-metre)container of toys, T-shirts or auto steering wheels from Shanghai to New York to nearly $10,000, double the cost in February, according to the Drewry World Container Index.
That has stoked worries that an extended period of elevated rates could translate into more price increases for inflation-squeezed U.S. shoppers.
HALLOWEEN IN JULY
Year-over-year U.S. container imports grew 11.9% in May and 10.4% in June, according to supply-chain software provider Descartes Systems Group DSG.TO.
Those increases came as major retailers scheduled back-to-school sales earlier to counter Amazon's AMZN.O Prime Day event on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, which the e-commerce giant said was its biggest ever. Amazon pushes its sellers to position inventory for sales events at least a month in advance.
"Now we're seeing fall fashion, Halloween and year-end holiday products moving through the supply chain," said Gene Seroka, executive director of the nation's busiest seaport in Los Angeles.
Some of those goods are already in stores. Home Depot HD.N this week begins selling its outdoor Halloween decor lineup, including "Skelly" a 12-foot (3.7-meter) robotic skeleton.
Seroka expects robust imports inJuly, noting that there are 63 ships en route to the Los Angeles and Long Beach port complex, versus 52 to 55 typically.
Logistics executives are trying to avoid a repeat of the supply-chain upheavals that followed former President Trump's China tariffs, the pandemic's start and the Red Sea attacks, Priest said.
"These last few years have really created, for lack of a better term, PTSD," Priest said, referring to post-traumatic stress disorder.
The early start to peak ocean shippingcould also mean an early end tosoaring rates that have some shippers fearing a return of record container freight prices.
"It's possible that we'll see peak demand in July and August, and some easing of demand starting in September," said Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos CRGO.O, an international freight booking and payments platform.
Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles and Arriana McLymore and Siddharth Cavale in New York; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Rod Nickel
면책조항: XM Group 회사는 체결 전용 서비스와 온라인 거래 플랫폼에 대한 접근을 제공하여, 개인이 웹사이트에서 또는 웹사이트를 통해 이용 가능한 콘텐츠를 보거나 사용할 수 있도록 허용합니다. 이에 대해 변경하거나 확장할 의도는 없습니다. 이러한 접근 및 사용에는 다음 사항이 항상 적용됩니다: (i) 이용 약관, (ii) 위험 경고, (iii) 완전 면책조항. 따라서, 이러한 콘텐츠는 일반적인 정보에 불과합니다. 특히, 온라인 거래 플랫폼의 콘텐츠는 금융 시장에서의 거래에 대한 권유나 제안이 아닙니다. 금융 시장에서의 거래는 자본에 상당한 위험을 수반합니다.
온라인 거래 플랫폼에 공개된 모든 자료는 교육/정보 목적으로만 제공되며, 금융, 투자세 또는 거래 조언 및 권고, 거래 가격 기록, 금융 상품 또는 원치 않는 금융 프로모션의 거래 제안 또는 권유를 포함하지 않으며, 포함해서도 안됩니다.
이 웹사이트에 포함된 모든 의견, 뉴스, 리서치, 분석, 가격, 기타 정보 또는 제3자 사이트에 대한 링크와 같이 XM이 준비하는 콘텐츠 뿐만 아니라, 제3자 콘텐츠는 일반 시장 논평으로서 "현재" 기준으로 제공되며, 투자 조언으로 여겨지지 않습니다. 모든 콘텐츠가 투자 리서치로 해석되는 경우, 투자 리서치의 독립성을 촉진하기 위해 고안된 법적 요건에 따라 콘텐츠가 의도되지 않았으며, 준비되지 않았다는 점을 인지하고 동의해야 합니다. 따라서, 관련 법률 및 규정에 따른 마케팅 커뮤니케이션이라고 간주됩니다. 여기에서 접근할 수 있는 앞서 언급한 정보에 대한 비독립 투자 리서치 및 위험 경고 알림을 읽고, 이해하시기 바랍니다.
