b'FeBRuaRy 8 - 21, 2021top north american exporters & importers 13sector but in early 2020 with the lock- easily be snuffed out should the Biden downs,manufacturingwasseverelyAdministrationstrugglegettingthe curtailed. But the first signs of reboundCOVID-19pandemicundercontrol began in July and by the end of thewith disruptions to vaccine distribu-year,arecoverywasunderway,per- tion and failure to reboot the economy.haps earlier than pundits had predicted.The Congressional Budget Office The import numbers for tires reflected(CBO), a nonpartisan arm of the legis-this roller coaster year. In 2020, Han- lature, recently released a report enti-kook Tire # 19 imported 34,642 TEUstledAnOverviewoftheEconomic compared to over 43,000 the previousOutlook 2021 to 2031 in which they year. Bridgestone #36 handled 24,141forecast the GDP increasing at an annu-TEUsin2020comparedto34,522alizedgrowthrateof1.7%between TEUs the year before while Michelin2021-2024.Thisnewforecastis0.7 Tire #46 was also down 20,281 TEUspercent higher than the last estimate in to 22,275 TEUs. Julyprior to the vaccine rollout.Ontheotherhand,Continen- Therelativeoptimismisbased tal Tire #22 was nearly flat at 32,943onanumberoffactorsincluding TEUscomparedto32,483TEUsinthe impacts of legislation (and that 2019 while Sumitomo Rubber #29 wasnosignificantadditionalemergency (COVIDcontinued from page 8) all) although the furniture retailer wasslightly up 27,678 TEUs compared tofunding or aid is provided [and] the valuecommodityderivedwhileondown from 128,713 TEUs posted in25,177 TEUs the previous year. Theyeconomy continues to strengthen).the import side higher value consumer2019. There were a number of otherswerent alone as Toyo Tire, HerculesUndoubtedly,amorenuanced goods are the mainstay. withRooms-To-Go#11(47,679Tire, Giti Tire and Sentury Tire weremultinationalapproachtotradeisa TEUs),AraucoWoodProducts#13all down compared to last year. keyfactorforpostpandemiceco-o bseRvatIons onaJot st op100(nearly43,000TEUs),AtHomenomic growth but some trends - like I mpoRteRs Stores # 25 (over 31,000 TEUs) andR ecoveRy andW hen ?the rise of e-commerce and environ-Asinpastyears,theinforma- CrateandBarrel#31(over25,000Thefourthquarterof2020mentally friendly products - are well tion in the Select Importers chart wasTEUs) being notable. showedaflickerofrecoverywithunderway and the next list might be a derived from Descartes DatamynesAutosarenearlyalwaysalarge4%growthbuttherecoverycouldstronger reflection of these trends.excellentsystem(www.datamyne.com). The data was assembled with care, but as a caveat all information iswroughtwithsomanyvariables that the final result should be viewed with prudence.It also is worth keeping in mind that U.S. importers frequently use third parties for the entry of goods thus the numbers in the charts are largely those which appear under the importers own name or sourcing company.Sincemanyofthebigretail-ersremainanonymous,thenumbers favor those who report under their own companybrandnames.Forexample, Walmartimportswelloveramillion TEUsperyearbutrarelyshowsover 100,000 TEUs (just over 80,000 TEUs in2020).HomeDepotandLowes also would normally be on the list but showedfewimportcontainersunder their own brand.Itisalsoworthnotingthatthe TEUs themselves are often the func-tion of adding a number of shipments together rather than an actual box. In a sense an average rather than a spe-cific box.In 2020, Amazon notched the top spot with just under 300,000 TEUs. Thee-commercegiantprobablydid more than twice that figure but as they are a third party themselves the num-bersaresomewhatskewereddown-ward. Target ranked #5 in the charts at nearly 134,000 TEUs and has been successful in both moving more goods through e-commerce as well as main-tainingastrongbrick-and-mortar business during the pandemic.Fresh foods were also a sector that did well during the pandemics lock-down. Not surprisingly, both Dole at #2(itwasalso#2in2019survey) with over 235,000 TEUs and Chiquita at #4 with over 159,000 TEUs were in the top five in the 2020 report. While Dole and Chiquita took the top spots, Del Monte, at #12 (47,000 TEUs), Sol Group,at#17(over35,000TEUs), Fyffe at #18 (over 35,000) also ranked high in 2020.Homefurnishingsarealwaysa strong import sector, and with the pan-demic, there has been an increase in buying activity for furniture. Ikea has been the largest furniture importer on the AJOTs lists for a number of years andin2020toppedthesectorwith over 111,000 TEUs (ranked #6 over-'