Georgia, April 10, 2025 -- Descartes Systems Group, the global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, released its April Global Shipping Report for logistics and supply chain professionals. In March 2025, U.S. container imports increased 6.3% over February and 11% compared to the same month last year. While the growth reflects the additional business days in March, it also reinforces the strong performance in January at the start of the year when container import volumes surpassed 2.4 million TEUs. March 2025 also saw a shift in port dynamics, with East and Gulf Coast ports overtaking West Coast ports in market share for the first time in nine months. At the same time, port transit time delays improved across all major ports, suggesting that port operations are keeping pace with rising volumes.
Imports from China were down 12.6% in March over February, potentially influenced in part by a new 10% tariff imposed by the U.S. on February 4 and an additional 10% tariff imposed on March 4. Year-over-year, however, Chinese imports were up 9.4% over March 2024. The April update of the logistics metrics Descartes is tracking shows strong growth in import performance in the face of increasingly volatile global trade conditions. Quickly evolving U.S. trade policies, shifting port dynamics, and ongoing instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, however, are complicating global supply chains and heightening the risks of disruption.
March U.S. container imports perform well amid escalating tariffs.
At 2,380,674 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), March 2025 posted the third-highest volume recorded for the month, trailing only March 2022 and March 2021. Overall, for the first three months of the year, total U.S. container imports increased 8.4% over the same period in 2024.
In March 2025, U.S. container import volume from the top 10 countries of origin (CoO) increased marginally by 8,857 TEUs, or 0.5% compared to February. Among these countries, China saw the largest drop, down 109,949 TEUs, followed by Hong Kong (down 4,571 TEUs). All other countries in the top 10 experienced increases, with Germany (up 39.6%), Thailand (up 35.7%) and Japan (33.4%) leading the pack. New U.S. tariffs announced on April 2 and targeting a wide range of countries could, however, disrupt trade flows from these top U.S. maritime trading partners in the months to come.
“While March volumes rebounded following a typical seasonal dip in February, global supply chains are facing significant challenges, in particular from the volatility associated with widening U.S. tariffs and retaliatory measures from key trading partners,” said Jackson Wood, Director, Industry Strategy at Descartes. “With high U.S. tariffs on goods from China and new tariffs on imports from most other countries, we can expect further upheaval for global logistics, as many businesses evaluate how to potentially reorient their supply chains to help manage costs and mitigate risk.”
The April report is Descartes’ forty-fourth installment since beginning its analysis in August 2021. To read past reports, learn more about the key economic and logistics factors driving global shipping, and review strategies to help address challenges in the near-, short- and long-term, visit Descartes’ Global Shipping Resource Center.
About Descartes
Descartes is the global leader in providing on-demand, software-as-a-service solutions focused on improving the productivity, security and sustainability of logistics-intensive businesses. Customers use our modular, software-as-a-service solutions to route, track and help improve the safety, performance and compliance of delivery resources; plan, allocate and execute shipments; rate, audit and pay transportation invoices; access global trade data; file customs and security documents for imports and exports; and complete numerous other logistics processes by participating in the world’s largest, collaborative multimodal logistics community. Our headquarters are in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and we have offices and partners around the world. Learn more at www.descartes.com, and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (“forward-looking statements”) that relate to Descartes’ solution offerings and potential benefits derived therefrom; and other matters. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, the factors and assumptions discussed in the section entitled, “Certain Factors That May Affect Future Results” in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Ontario Securities Commission and other securities commissions across Canada including Descartes’ most recently filed management’s discussion and analysis. If any such risks actually occur, they could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. In that case, the trading price of our common shares could decline, perhaps materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purposes of providing information about management’s current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. We do not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based, except as required by law.