美国出口找到立足点

Exports find their footing

5年颓势之后，美国货主和他们的服务供应商正迎来复苏的海外市场。

After a five-year slump, US shippers and their service providers are enjoying a resurgence overseas. After a compound annual growth rate of negative-0.15 percent over the last five years, US containerized exports are on the upswing, a boon not just to shippers of goods and commodities such as cotton and poultry, but also to the railroads, marine terminals, and, most of all, container lines hungry to ship anything but empties to Asia. Exports got off to a stronger-thanexpected start this year, although still far from thrilling compared with year-over-year import growth of 6 percent in the first five months of the year, according to PIERS, a sister product of The Journal of Commerce within IHS Markit. US containerized exports expanded 1.3 percent, to 5.2 million TEU, over the same period. The weakening US dollar, coupled with the strengthening global economy, ramped up export demand for synthetic resins to 84,823 TEU, and is setting the stage for an acceleration of growth — as long as the US trade relations with major partners don't devolve into a tit-for-tat exchange on the winds of protectionism. After a stronger-than-expected first-quarter surge, Mario Moreno, senior economist for IHS Markit's Maritime & Trade unit, boosted his full-year export volume forecast from 0.8 percent to 2.6 percent.