Trade intelligence company Zepol Corp. reports that U.S. import shipment volume for July, measured in TEUs, increased 2.45% from June but decreased 4.10% from July of 2010. The total number of shipments also increased 3.49% from June while also showing a decrease of 3% from July of 2010. Year to date, total TEUs are up 3.30% this year over last year.

While Europe, Central America, and South America showed a July decrease in TEUs of 0.72%, 4.17%, and 4.50%, respectively, the overall slight increase in TEUs can be credited to Asia’s 3.81% increase. China, Hong Kong, and Japan showed an increase in TEUs compared to the decrease seen in South Korea and Taiwan.

The Pacific, Mid Atlantic, and South Atlantic ports showed an increase of incoming shipments by 4.10%, 5.43%, and nearly 2% respectively, directly opposite of their decreases last month. Within the Pacific ports, California showed an increase of about 4% while Washington showed a large increase of nearly 8% -- the highest number of incoming shipments (55,418) the state has posted since January 2011.

Zepol’s data is derived from Bills of Lading entered into the Automated Manifest System. This information represents the number of House manifests entered by importers of waterborne containerized goods. This is the earliest indicator for trade data available for the previous month’s import activity. The data excludes shipments from empty containers, excludes shipments labeled as freight remaining on board, and may contain other data anomalies.