Why Furniture May Feel the Most Pressure of an East Coast Port Strike
Furniture importers beware—an East and Gulf Coast port strike would likely have an outsized impact on home furnishings retailers looking to get product into the U.S.
Of all containerized waterborne imports entering through the East and Gulf Coast ports this year through Sept. 11, furniture and seats amount to roughly 3.7 million tons, or $10.9 billion worth of goods, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s USA Trade Online data tool.
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Respectively, furniture and seats comprise the fifth- and eighth-largest categories by total dollar value of cargo that has entered the ports in 2024. But combined, the categories surpass the $10.8 billion in imported automotive parts and accessories for top dollar value overall.
This puts the furniture industry right up with other imports expected to see a major hit, including medicines, vaccines and semiconductors.
On an individual category basis, the 2.5 million tons of furniture mark the highest total tonnage among all imports via ocean freight, worth $6.4 billion. Seats tack on another 1.2 million tons—the sixth-largest category by tonnage—and are valued at $4.55 billion.
Eighty-seven percent of the total tonnage across furniture and seats is coming out of Asian ports.
Apparel would likely to see an impact if union dockworkers strike on Oct. 1, but not quite to the extent of its furniture counterparts.
T-shirts and tanktops across men, women and kids will be the most impacted garments in the apparel sector, with 234,580 tons coming through the ports—the most among all apparel products.
While the tonnage is only ranked 79 among all categories entering the ports, the dollar figure tells the true story here, ranked 21st among all imports at a $2.5 billion value.
Sweaters, pullovers and vests represent the highest imported dollar amount within apparel at $2.8 billion, and are 17th overall. The goods total 204,908 tons, the second most among apparel goods and 90th across the board.
Men’s suits, pants, ensembles and shorts come in at nearly $2 billion at 138,064 tons, while women’s suits, dresses, pants and skirts came in at under $1.9 billion at 108,544 tons.
Jason Miller, interim chairperson, department of supply chain management at Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business, shared the data with Sourcing Journal, indicating that the relatively low apparel figures compared to other sectors could be a good sign for the industry if a strike indeed occurs.
“Apparel shows up for Asian imports when we look at dollar values, though not as high as I expected (likely because so much apparel moves by air),” Miller said.
Across five separate categories, 210,787 tons of footwear have entered the U.S., which would be 87th among total tonnage among imports this year. In total, those products were valued much higher at $3.2 billion, or 15th across all products, if combined.
Automotive will be the largest sector impacted, with parts and accessories for motor vehicles representing the second-highest tonnage through the East and Gulf Coast ports at 1.8 million this year, and the highest overall dollar value ($10.8 billion). Motor cars and vehicles have the third-highest dollar value ($7.7 billion) on 501,757 tons.
In an advisory to customers, container trading and leasing marketplace Container XChange indicated that the rate of importing in recent months could soften the blow on the retail side.
“While the threat of strikes looms large, it’s important to note that U.S. inventories are currently strong due to the pulling forward of orders earlier this year to avoid existing disruptions. This stockpile will act as an essential buffer, mitigating the risk of container rates spiking dramatically due to the strikes,” said Christian Roeloffs, co-founder and CEO of Container XChange. “Additionally, with no significant signs of peak season demand strengthening, these strikes might not have as intense an impact as historically seen.”
As the days inch closer to the ILA-USMX Sept. 30 contract expiration date, shippers have continued to flood the West Coast with more cargo rather than risk shipping it eastward.
According to data presented by container shipping expert John McCown, July saw an overall 40.5 percent increase in inbound volume into the West Coast ports, a wide 35 percent coastal gap compared to the 5.5 percent increase at East/Gulf Coast ports.
“That is the second largest coastal gap for the more than nine years that I have data comparing the growth by range,” McCown said in commentary in The McCown Report in August. “It is just below the record 38.3 percentage point gap favoring West Coast ports in March 2021 at the height of the pandemic’s impact on inbound boxes.”
The movement comes amid the latest threat from the International Longshoremen’s Association, which said Tuesday it would reject the U.S. Maritime Alliance’s current offer on new entry wages. The union said an Oct. 1 strike seems “more likely as time is running out to get a new Master Contract Agreement settled.”
As of Friday, the USMX said no new negotiations have taken place.
Reports have indicated the ILA wants a 77 percent wage increase as part of their new contract, but that number has never been confirmed. In its Tuesday statement, the union accused its employers of leaking details of the union’s wage demands to the media.
The union said it will no longer accept master contracts that include small wage increases of a dollar or less, or terms where the employers ask for no yearly increases within the terms of the agreement.
“For over three decades, the annual increase in wages for ILA workers rose only a meager 2.02 percent per year, on average,” the ILA said. “This kind of treatment in negotiations is unacceptable for the ILA deepsea longshore workforce of 2024.”
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