b"FEBRUARY 20 - MARCH 19, 2023TOP EXPORTERS & IMPORTERS27Notes to the AJOTs Top 100 Importers chart for 2023By George Lauriat, AJOT lists.Inothercases,theTEU totals in 230,000-240,000whileAtHomesStoresat23,000 TEUsreportinghaschanged,andrange.Interestingly,fruit/pro- 23rd hit nearly 41,000 TEUsOtherregulartopofthe The AJOTs Top 100 Import- the data isnt available in anyducesuppliersagainwereandEuromarketDesignschart makers were present in ers chart featured annually formeaningful waythenum- high on the Top 100 list. Chiq- (CrateandBarrel)at25ththis years version. Nike at 8 thover two decades in the Topbers are simply too low.uita came in number 3 at overtipped38,000TEUs.Livingand Adidas 11 thposted 110,000 North American Importers andOtherincidentaldataa171,000TEUswhileDelSpacescameinat39 th withTEUsand60,000TEUs Exporterseditionhighlightsdoes help fill in some blanksMontetappedinat7thwith24,000TEUswhileAshley(NOTEScontinued on thelargestimportersindeliveriestoknownDCsover 143,000 TEUs. A little far- Furniture at 41 sthit just overpage 28)terms of TEUs (Twenty-foot- andwarehousesorhandlingtherdown,Fyffes Tropicalat equivalentunits).Thisdataby 3PL (third party logistics28 thposted nearly 35,000 TEUsd isClaimerreflectsoceanimportsfromproviders) can in instances bewhile the Sol Group just behind billsofladings(BLs)andtraced to the BCO (beneficialat 29 thchecked in with nearlyDescartes-Datamyne data provides 12 months of aggregated for statistical purposes aver- cargo owner). 31,000 TEUs. statistics on the waterborne trading activity of US importers in ages this tally out into TEUs.However,evenwiththeSamsung America placedthe US.For companies that have multiple locations or units engaged For this reason, the totals doabove-mentionedcaveats,the2 ndand notched almost 176,000in trade, trade statistics are aggregated by individual location or notexactlyalignwithTEUTEU totals do give a fair rep- TEUswhilerivalLGElec- unit, and then totaled at the company headquarters level, as iden-totalsreportedbyU.S.portresentationofyear-to-yeartronicsUSAwas5thwithtified by D&B, or by Descartes-Datamyne if D&B data is not authorities. Equally, all boxesactivity and are an interest- over 155,000 TEUs.available.(TEUs)arentcreatedequalingbarometertotradeandAlmosteveryyear,IkeaDescartes-DatamynedatadoesNOTincludeinformation as the dollar value of one itemtrading behavior.isthetopinhomefurnish- on shipments for which the consignee is NOT identified. Gener-suchaselectronicscanbeings. This year Ikea was 4 thonally, these are shipments handled by an intermediary such as an vastlylargerthansaypaperC harth ighlights the list at over 170,000 TEUs.NVOCC or other third-party service provider.SkysTheLimit2.pdf 1 12/13/2021 3:07:20 PM Note, too, that companies may not be identified in shipment products. Also,somefreightThisyearschartleaderBut the sector is well repre- records because they are exercising their legal right to restrict the cubes out and other freightisDolewith234,000TEUs.sented as Room To Go (RTG)public release of information about their trading activities.weigh out as the density ofDoleconsistentlyhaspostedwas12 th andtopped58,000 theitemsvariesenormously. Thechartreflects,asthe nameimplies,onlyimports fortworeasons:thefirstis thatimportsvastlyoutpace exports and thus are of prin-cipleinterest;andsecondly the accuracy of export data for manyreasons,isntaswell-defined as import data. Asinpastyears,the informationintheAJOTs Top100Importerschartwas derivedfromDescartes-Data-mynesexcellentsystem (www.datamyne.com).The datawasassembledwith care, but as a caveat, all infor-mationiswroughtwithso many variables that the finalAt the Port of Baltimore, the sky's the limit. result should be viewed with prudence. [See Disclaimer] Neo-Panamax cranes. 50-foot deep berths. No supply chain congestion.It also is worth keeping in mind that U.S. importers fre-quently use third parties for the entry of goods thus the num-bers in the charts are largely thosewhichappearunder Ctheimportersownname Morsourcingcompany.For Yexample,WalMartexceeded amillionTEUsinimports CMover a decade ago and our fig-MYuresonlyshowjustunder CY94,889 TEUs. A number of the CMYother name mega-retailers and online-retailershavesimilar Kunder reporting of their over-all imports. In this years data Target doesnt even make the list,althoughthroughunof-ficialincidentaldatawecan makeestimatesthatputthe mega-retailerprobablyover 200,000 TEUs. And Amazon, whichledtherankingfor thelasttwoyearsposteda meager 21,773 TEUs in 2022 but similar to WalMarts case, likely had numbers in excess of 400,000 TEUs.A similar case can be made for Home Depotat59 th whichposted just over 18,000 TEUs after nearly hitting 72,000 TEUs in the 2022 chart.Insomecases,thedatamarylandports.com 1.800.638.7519forpreviousyearsisNAor Not Available which in mostMaryland Port Administration Executive Director William P. Doyleinstances,suchasBMW North America simply means it didnt make the Top 100"