One of the keys to successful supply chain management is matching inventory levels to consumer demand. How is retail activity for 2017 shaping up compared to recent years?
Predicting Sales Based on Port Activity
The Global Port Tracker is a monthly report generated by the National Retail Federation (NRF) in conjunction with consulting firm Hackett Associates. Based on activity at major retail container ports, the NRF predicts that sales will grow between 3.7 percent and 4.2 percent over 2016’s numbers.
Port activity is measured in twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, which equate to a 20-foot-long cargo container. According to Global Port Tracker, the ports it covers handled 1.58 million TEUs in December 2016, which was a 10.2 percent increase from the previous December.
Total cargo volume in 2016 equaled 18.8 million TEUs. That number was up 3.2 percent from 2015, which in turn showed a 5.4 percent increase over 2014.
What’s in Store for 2017?
Jonathan Gold, vice president of Supply Chain And Customs Policy for NRF, explains that greater quantities of imports flowing through ports usually indicates a corresponding growth in sales. This trend led NRF to forecast 9.4 million TEUs during the first half of 2017, for a healthy 4.6 percent increase over the same period in 2016.
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