The trade intelligence company revealed that import shipment volume was up 12.84 percent over October 2009.

However, total number of shipments declined 2.72 percent from September and increased 10.23 percent over the previous October.

Statistics for U.S. port regions revealed that total shipments from Asia declined 4.53 percent from September. Pacific ports reported a decrease of 6.55 percent, while East Coast ports were up 3.29 percent and Gulf ports up 0.71 percent in terms of total TEUs.

It was reported that year to date, total import shipments were up 14.21 percent over 2009 and down 2.38 percent on 2008.

Year to date TEUs show similar numbers and were up 16.17 percent over 2009, but down 0.23 percent from 2008.

The numbers indicate that individual shipments are larger compared to previous years, according to Zepol Corporation.

Although total volume is down, two shipping lines, Maersk and CMA, reported increases over September for total TEUs.

The rest of the top 10 carriers saw volumes to the U.S. shrink.

Zepol collates data from Bills of Lading entered into the Automated Manifest System. It is the earliest indicator for trade data available for the previous month’s import activity.

Edited by Abigail Phillips

Read Supply Chain Digital's article How Global Shipping Has Overcome the Recession.