The United States is the largest importer in the world. It has had a decades-long trade deficit, importing far more goods and services than exports.

The top 5 imports to the United States are cars, computers, packaged medical treatments, broadcast equipment, and crude petroleum.

The top 5 exports from the United States are refined petroleum, crude petroleum, cars, integrated circuits, and petroleum gas.

The top 3 routes to get your goods to the USA are:

1. China to the USA:

Shanghai (CNSHA) – Long Beach, California (USLGB)

2. The Netherlands to the USA:

Rotterdam (NLROT) – Newark, New Jersey (USNWK)

3. UK to the USA:

Felixstowe (GBFXT) – Miami, Florida (USMIA)

The transit times to the USA can vary considerably depending on the route and the number of transhipment moves (shipment legs).

For instance, a direct service from China’s main base ports to Los Angeles is about 2 weeks. However, that can extend out to 3 weeks if the cargo origin is from a much smaller port location where feeder vessels carry containers to the larger ports to be transhipped onto a larger mother vessel for final sailing into the USA.

As a rough guide, the estimated transit time for the longest route to the USA (Pasir Gudang, Malaysia – Miami, Florida) is usually around 60 days.

Here are some of the shortest routes to the USA:

• Shanghai port, direct service to Long Beach, CA port is approximately 39 days (factoring in congestion/dwell time in Long Beach area).

• Rotterdam port, direct service to Newark, NJ port is 15 days.

With Twill offering Intra-America logistics services, some of the transit times for exports from the USA to the Caribbean will be as short as 7 days.

While there are many events that drive container volumes, the biggest event remains the holiday shopping season for USA retailers. From Black Friday through to Christmas and Hanukah, the lead up to this period provides for the biggest volume surge. With that, this also causes typically higher container rates and space constraints across the network. On a smaller scale, there is usually a rush leading into Easter and following that, the back to school sales event.

The customs clearance process can differ from country to country and from port to port. At South Ocean, we realise the importance of getting your goods cleared with customs in a compliant manner.

That is why we have built one of the best in class Customs Clearance Service departments in the USA. The first important step to know when importing goods to the USA is that you will have to complete and provide your customs broker with a Power of Attorney. In this way, your customs broker can act on your behalf with USA customs in clearing your goods a minimum of 72 hours before the shipment departure. The second important step is to own a customs bond with a bond surety company. That will provide the USA customs with a guarantee that they will be paid for all additional import duties and taxes should they arise.

The USA holds the world’s largest economy, and most of it is driven by its port’s operations. And the largest ports are identified based on the number of domestic TEUs they handle. TEUs are used to measure volume, which correlates to cargo-carrying capacity. The top 5 ports in the United States are:

1. The Port of Los Angeles

2. The Port of Long Beach

3. The Port of New York and New Jersey

4. The Port of Savannah

5. Northwest Seaport Alliance (a marine cargo operating partnership of the Port of Seattle and Port of Tacoma)