S&P Global Market Intelligence reports January import growth, with February and March looking not as certain

United States-bound import growth began 2025 where 2024 left off, posting strong January numbers, according to data recently issued by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The firm reported that January imports, at 2.80 million TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units), increased 8.0% annually.

Looking at different commodity categories, S&P Global Market Intelligence reported the following: capital goods shipments fell 1.7% annually, due to lower shipments of capital equipment, which fell 17.6%, for its steepest decline since November 2018; and consumer durables increased 12.8% annually, with apparel up 16.3%, consumer electronics up 16.2%, and staples up 12.9% (including a 14.0% increase in healthcare).

S&P Global Market Intelligence Research Director Chris Rogers told LM that the beginning of the year was similar to the end of last year, with cargo owners trying to anticipate changes in policy.

“When you look at some of the patterns, that big growth in consumer goods is largely because of the expectation that President Trump’s first tariffs would apply to consumer goods,” he said. “In the first Trump administration, a lot of the tariffs were aimed at intermediate goods, the goods used to make things, whereas this time around it would focus on everything—and tariffs on consumer goods for the first time. I think that is why we saw a rush for consumer goods, with the capital goods that already had tariffs not progressing as much. The other parts were the uncertainty regarding a potential East and Gulf Coast ports’ labor stoppage, with cargo owners wanting their freight to arrive in early January, as well as the Lunar New Year coming earlier this year. That means there will be more stuff arriving in January and early February than late February and early March.”

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