By Kim Khan
Investing.com - Imports to the U.S. face a bigger impact from Covid-19 than thought earlier, the National Retail Federation reported Monday.
U.S. ports handled 1.82 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in January, the latest month solid numbers are available, according to the Global Port Tracker report issued by the NRF and Hackett Associates. That was down 3.8% from the year-ago period.
February is estimated to be down 12.6% and March to be down 18.3%.
“There are still a lot of unknowns to fully determine the impact of the coronavirus on the supply chain,” NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said in a statement.
“As factories in China continue to come back online, products are now flowing again,” Gold said. “But there are still issues affecting cargo movement, including the availability of truck drivers to move cargo to Chinese ports. Retailers are working with both their suppliers and transportation providers to find paths forward to minimize disruption.”
The SPDR Retail ETF (NYSE:XRT) was down 4.7% in afternoon trading.