Retailers Step Up Holiday Imports in Case of a West Coast Port Strike

Retailers are rushing to bring holiday merchandise into the U.S., to protect against potential disruptions arising from ongoing contract talks between West Coast longshore labor and marine terminal operators. U.S. ports currently are experiencing their highest monthly container volumes in at least five years, according to figures released yesterday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. They reported a total of nearly 1.5 million boxes moving through the ports in June.