b'6American Journal of Transportation ajot.comUS-China & Hong KongUnited States Exports to China & Hong Kongocean trade in numbers CHINA YEAR JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN TTL2020 144,384 134,054 128,019 159,848 181,223 165,141 912,6692019 122,097 135,692 168,465 169,435 142,922 138,877 877,487The impact of the pandemic and tariffs on trade between the United States,% 18.25% -1.21% -24.01% -5.66% 26.80% 18.91% 4.01%Hong Kong and China over the first half of 2020 in terms of TEUs (figuresYEAR JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN TTLcompiled by Descartes-Datamyne) shows the real divergence in trade interestsHONG KONG 2020 19,291 19,815 24,145 27,648 22,480 18,818 132,197between the PRC (Peoples Republic of China) and Hong Kong. 2019 29,961 27,908 32,360 30,345 24,843 24,508 169,923% -35.61% -29.00% -25.39% -8.89% -9.51% -23.22% -22.20%Teu i mPorTs Toh onGK onG andPrcfromu.s. Source: Descartes - DatamyneIn the first half of 2020 U.S. exports to the PRC were up a surprising 4.01% to 912,669 TEUs over 2019, largely because of a nearly 27% increase in May followed by a nearly 19% rise in June [see accompanying Descartes- United States Exports to Hong Kong by CommodityDatamyne charts derived from BLs for more details].The story for embattled Hong Kong was different. Hong Kongs importsTEUsfrom the U.S. were off by over -22% (132,197-169,923 TEUs) in the firstHS CODE (2 digit level) H1 2020 H1 2019 Diff %half of 2020. In terms of major import commodities exported from the U.S.47 - WOOD PULP ETC; RECOVD (WASTE & SCRAP) PPR & PPRBD 20,386 23,496 -13.24to Hong Kong in the first half, meats were down over 40%, wood and related39 - PLASTICS AND ARTICLES THEREOF 14,762 17,228 -14.32products over 50% and aluminum products nearly 50%. 23 - FOOD INDUSTRY RESIDUES & WASTE; PREP ANIMAL FEED 9,531 10,902 -12.5702 - MEAT AND EDIBLE MEAT OFFAL 9,278 15,580 -40.45However, U.S. trade with China was a different story. In terms of TEUs,08 - EDIBLE FRUIT AND NUTS; PEEL OF CITRUS FRUIT OR MELONS 8,626 10,209 -15.51grain was up 61%, paper and paper products almost 34%, cotton was up over12 - OIL SEEDS ETC.; MISC GRAIN, SEED, FRUIT, PLANT ETC 5,166 5,792 -10.8224% while vehicles also nearly notched a 24% increase, as did plastics. But the44 - WOOD AND ARTICLES OF WOOD; WOOD CHARCOAL 4,757 3,101 53.42biggest winner is meat with a whopping 326% increase over 2020. 48 - PAPER & PAPERBOARD & ARTICLES (INC PAPR PULP ARTL) 4,668 3,836 21.6952 - COTTON, INCLUDING YARNS AND WOVEN FABRICS THEREOF 3,959 4,085 -3.08TeuexPorTs fromh onGK onG andPrcTou.s. 76 - ALUMINUM AND ARTICLES THEREOF 3,653 7,193 -49.22U.S. imports from China and Hong Kong were both off around -15%OTHERS 47,413 68,501 -30.79Total 132,197 169,923 -22.20inthefirsthalfof2020comparedwiththe TEUtotalsof2019(China:Source: Descartes - Datamyne3,900,884/4,612,486 TEUsHong Kong: 282,552/332,696 TEUs). Notsurprisinglythe double whammy of the pan-demic[withlowerdemand] and tariffs impacted Chinas consumerexportstothe U.S. Furniture was off -25%, apparel over -25% and foot-wear over -37%. This result wassimilartoHongKong whichshowedfootwear importsdownnearly48% (8,552/16,386TEUs),furni-tureexportsdroppingover -18%(41,114/50,344 TEUs) and apparel dropping almost -21% (7,548/9,530 TEUs).FromaU.S.perspec-tive,forthePortofLos AngelesChineseimports were off -19% TEUs in the first half of 2020 in compar-isontothesameperiodin 2019 (1,011,599/ 1,253,872 TEUs) and neighboring Long Beach-7.44%(923,293/ 997,504 TEUs). Overall,bothSanPedro ports appear to be making up ground in the 3rd quarter as FEU Trans Pacific eastbound freightrateshavesoaredto around $3,000. The re-stocking of ware-houseshasalsointensified truckandrailmovements onthe WestCoast.Imports climbed20.3%to376,807 TEUs,whileexportsgrew 24.1%to138,602TEUs. Emptycontainersheaded backoverseasincreased 20.8%to237,672TEUs, accordingtoLongBeach portstatistics.ThePortof Los Angeles moved 856,389 TEUsinJuly,thebusiest monththusfarof2020.It wasalsothesecond-best JulyinthePortshistory, trailing July 2019 by 6.1%. On the East Coast, the Port ofNewYork/NewJersey wasdownalmost-19% (414,804/511,348 TEUs) for the first half of 2020 in com-parisontothesameperiod last year. The Port of Savan-nah TEU total for the first half of the year was also off about -12.5% compared to last year (396,746/453,241 TEUs).'