AJOT’s 2023 Top 100 Importers

	Select U.S. Importers	State	City	Industry	Est TEU	Est TEU	Est TEU	Est TEU
1	Dole Food Company Inc	CA	Thousand Oaks	Fruits/Produce	232,797	235,396	244,154	234,077
2	Samsung America Inc	NJ	Ridgefield Park	Retail/Electronics	172,050	213,502	228,873	175,835
3	Chiquita Fresh North America LLC	NC	Charlotte	Fruits/Produce	158,501	159,466	161,477	171,893
4	Ikea	PA	Conshohocken	Home Furnishings	128,713	111,490	153,507	170,494
5	LG Electronics USA Inc	AL	Huntsville	Retail/Electronics	60,751	103,390	134,458	155,465
6	Lowes (LG Sourcing)	NC	Mooresville	Retail Lumber	NA	NA	72,175	149,750
7	Del Monte Fresh Produce NA Inc	FL	Coral Gables	Fruits/Produce	48,243	47,065	112,703	143,380
8	Nike Inc	OR	Beaverton	Retail/Athletic	NA	NA	45,076	110,316
9	WalMart Inc	AR	Bentonville	Retail	183,768	80,352	188,079	94,889
10	Heineken	NY	White Plains	Alcoholic Beverages	NA	36,137	66,917	65,700
11	Adidas America Inc	OR	Portland	Retail/Athletic	23,839	32,377	37,801	59,803
12	Rooms To Go Furniture (RTG)	FL	Seffner	Home Furnishings	NA	47,679	61,500	58,276
13	Mercedes Benz USA	GA	Atlanta	Auto	57,498	30,035	41,607	57,373
14	Michelin North America Inc	SC	Greenville	Tires	22,275	20,281	35,727	54,679
15	Electrolux Company	NC	Charlotte	Home Appliances	32,724	48,641	57,152	50,442
16	Kubota Tractor Corp	TX	Grapevine	Agricultural Machinery	38,345	34,543	42,669	50,429
17	Continental Tire North America	SC	Fort Mill	Tires	32,483	32,943	42,453	48,705
18	Yokohama Tire Corp	CA	Santa Ana	Tires	22,128	16,516	35,514	47,249
19	Dollar General Corp	TN	Goodlettsville	Discount Retail	NA	NA	NA	45,361
20	Red Bull North America Inc	CA	Santa Monica	Beverages	71,336	67,778	63,380	44,371
21	Toyota Corp	NY	New York	Auto Parts	38,072	33,660	39,116	41,750
22	Hankook Tire	TN	Nashville	Tires	43,158	34,642	34,373	41,541
23	At Home Stores LLC	TX	Plano	Furniture	29,453	31,174	49,354	40,905
24	Tractor Supply	TN	Brentwood	Farm Supplies	NA	26,556	39,739	38,705
25	Euromarket Designs Inc (Crate & Barrel)	IL	Chicago	Home Furnishings	23,665	25,890	39,026	38,027
26	Hyundai Glovis	CA	Irvine	Auto Parts	NA	19,546	29,760	37,252
27	Gildan Activewear Eden Inc	QC	Montreal	Apparel	17,988	25,768	38,568	35,922
28	Fyffes Tropical Produce LLC (SOL)	FL	Coral Gables	Fruits/Produce	30,529	35,431	41,303	34,901
29	Sol Group Marketing Company	FL	Pompano Beach	Fruits/Produce	34,357	35,587	35,240	31,353
30	Hanwha International Corp	Korea	Seoul	Aerospace/Solar	18,073	22,586	20,161	30,995
31	Sumitomo Rubber	NY	Tonawanda	Tires	25,117	27,678	32,049	29,222
32	Toyo Tires USA Corp	CA	Cypress	Tires	17,576	14,566	22,588	29,186
33	Southern Wine & Spirits of America	FL	Miami	Alcoholic Beverages	NA	21,529	34,347	27,561
34	BMW North America	NJ	Woodcliff Lake	Auto Maker	NA	NA	NA	26,234
35	Mattel Inc	CA	El Segundo	Retail/Toys	18,300	20,019	21,838	25,244
36	Bridgestone Americas Tire	TN	Nashville	Tires	34,522	24,141	23,562	25,112
37	Keter North America Inc	IN	Anderson	Plastic Garden/House	18,519	19,582	28,701	24,610
38	John Deere	IL	Moline	Tractors/Equipment	NA	12,385	18,566	24,424
39	Living Spaces Furniture	CA	La Mirada	Home Furnishings	20,924	23,576	29,915	24,129
40	Goodyear Tire Rubber	OH	Akron	Tires	NA	NA	21,224	24,031
41	Ashley Furniture	NJ	Edison	Furniture	NA	NA	NA	23,386
42	Fiji Water Company LLC	CA	Los Angeles	Water/Beverages	17,948	13,294	19,217	22,468
43	General Motors	MI	Detroit	Auto Maker	NA	NA	NA	22,371
44	Amazon	WA	Seattle	Online Retail	225,000	292,205	330,818	21,773
45	Mobis Parts	CA	Fountain Valley	Auto Parts	25,358	21,105	17,207	21,329
46	Bob's Discount Furniture	CT	Manchester	Furniture	NA	NA	NA	20,840
47	Conair Corp	CT	Stamford	Home Appliances	22,645	23,963	27,898	20,817
48	Hewlett Packard (HP)	CA	Palo Alto	Electronics	NA	NA	16,647	20,492
49	Yamaha Motor Corp	CA	Cypress	Motorized Products	21,085	12,342	17,640	19,914
50	Fred Meyer Inc	OR	Portland	Retailer	NA	15,479	16,048	19,498
51	Walgreen	IL	Deerfield	Retail/Pharmaceuticals	NA	NA	16,357	19,246
52	Walgreen Company	IL	Deerfield	Drugstores	NA	NA	NA	19,246
53	Pirelli Tire LLC	GA	Rome	Tires	15,339	12,053	17,370	19,155
54	Diageo North America	NY	New York City	Alcoholic Beverages	NA	25,599	17,537	18,900
55	Puma North America	MA	Somerville	Retail/Athletic	NA	NA	13,811	18,851
56	Mitsubishi Electric Automotive	CA	Cypress	Auto	NA	NA	15,627	18,583
57	BJ's Wholesale Club Inc	MA	Westborough	Retail	15,854	17,101	20,643	18,493
58	Canadian Solar USA Inc	ON	West Guelph	Solar Cells	NA	NA	20,022	18,082
59	The Home Depot	GA	Atlanta	Retail Lumber	NA	NA	71,820	18,024
60	CMPC USA Inc	GA	Atlanta	Paper/Plastics	17,473	24,241	16,941	17,585
61	Robert Bosch Corp	MI	Farmington Hills	Auto	NA	NA	17,767	17,487
62	BSH Home Appliances (Bosch)	CA	Irving	Home Appliances	NA	14,851	19,391	17,222
63	Kumho Tire USA	GA	Atlanta	Tires	NA	NA	NA	17,177
64	Goya Foods Inc	NJ	Secaucus	Hispanic Foods	NA	14,624	15,125	17,034
65	Olam International Ltd	CA	Fresno	Agricultural	NA	NA	NA	16,459
66	American Furniture Warehouse Co	CO	Englewood	Home Furnishings	NA	NA	16,846	16,331
67	Hyosung USA Inc	AL	Decatur	Textiles	NA	NA	16,319	16,204
68	Crown Cork & Seal Co	PA	Philadelphia	Beverage & Can Maker	NA	NA	24,171	16,059
69	Cummins Inc	IN	Columbus	Diesel Engines	NA	NA	13,890	15,993
70	Pvh Corp (Phillips Van-Heusen)	NY	New York	Retail	18,163	15,949	15,000	15,847
71	Cooper Tire and Rubber	OH	Findlay	Tires	NA	NA	14,199	15,445
72	ES Window	FL	Miami	Windows	NA	NA	NA	15,248
73	Cosentino USA	FL	Miami	Kitchen Countertops	NA	NA	NA	15,077
74	Jinko Solar	CA	San Francisco	Solar Cells	NA	NA	22,665	14,992
75	Epson America Inc	CA	Long Beach	Electronics	12,606	11,991	13,713	14,950
76	Yaraghi LLC	NY	Port Washington	Home Furnishings	NA	NA	NA	14,947
77	Longi Solar Technology US Inc	CA	San Ramon	Solar Cells	10,447	19,624	31,018	14,818
78	All Market Inc. (Vita Coco)	NY	New York City	Beverages	NA	NA	NA	14,534
79	Burlington Coat Factory	NJ	Burlington	Clothing/Coats	NA	NA	NA	14,507
80	Pernod Ricard USA Inc	NY	New York City	Wines & Spirits	NA	NA	NA	14,342
81	Gallo Family Vineyards	CA	Modesto	Wine	NA	NA	15,435	14,294
82	VLM Foods	QC	Dollard-Des Ormeaux	Food & Beverages	NA	12,976	11,606	14,234
83	Volkswagen of America Inc	VA	Herndon	Auto	29,385	13,961	12,691	14,002
84	Goplus Corp	CA	Fontana	Consumer Products	NA	15,523	14,113	13,815
85	Nexen Tire USA	OH	Richfield	Tires	NA	NA	NA	13,810
86	Sentury Tire USA Inc	FL	Hialeah	Tires	12,336	13,074	13,029	13,793
87	Danone Inc	NY	White Plains	Food & Beverages	NA	NA	NA	13,729
88	Hasbro	RI	Pawtucket	Toys	NA	NA	NA	13,567
89	Jo-Ann Stores Inc	OH	Hudson	Retail	14,401	15,159	15,594	13,565
90	Hennes and Mauritz LP (H&M)	NY	New York City	Apparel and Cosmetics	NA	NA	13,474	13,533
91	99 Cents Only Stores	CA	Commerce	Retailer	NA	NA	15,029	13,490
92	City Furniture and Appliances	AB	Peace River	Furniture and Appliances	NA	10,812	15,382	13,325
93	Giti Tire Usa Ltd	CA	Rancho Cucamonga	Tires	11,986	13,158	14,334	13,232
94	Arhaus Inc	OH	Hudson	Furniture	NA	NA	NA	13,210
95	Williams Sonoma Inc	CA	San Francisco	Home Furnishings	11,174	35,620	20,426	13,187
96	Nissan North America Inc	TN	Franklin	Auto	13,738	9,503	15,459	13,081
97	Ford Motor Co	MI	Dearborn	Auto	NA	NA	13,981	13,070
98	CNH (Case New Holland)	WI	Racine	Farming Equipment	NA	NA	12,796	13,060
99	Proctor & Gamble Company	OH	Cincinnati	Health & Beauty/Consumer	NA	NA	13,464	13,038
100	Sailun Tires Americas Inc	ON	Brampton	Tires	NA	NA	NA	12,928

Source data provided by Descartes Datamyne

Notes to the AJOT’s Top 100 Importers chart for 2023

The AJOT’s Top 100 Importers chart featured annually for over two decades in the “Top North American Importers and Exporters” edition highlights the largest “importers” in terms of TEUs (Twenty-foot-equivalent units). This data reflects ocean imports from bills of ladings (BLs) and for statistical purposes averages this tally out into TEUs. For this reason, the totals do not exactly align with TEU totals reported by U.S. port authorities. Equally, all boxes (TEUs) aren’t created equal as the dollar value of one item such as electronics can be vastly larger than say paper products. Also, some freight “cubes out” and other freight “weigh out” as the density of the items varies enormously. The chart reflects, as the name implies, only imports for two reasons: the first is that imports vastly out pace exports and thus are of principle interest; and secondly the accuracy of export data for many reasons, isn’t as well-defined as import data.

As in past years, the information in the AJOT’s Top 100 Importers chart was derived from Descartes-Datamyne’s excellent system (www.datamyne.com). The data was assembled with care, but as a caveat, all information is wrought with so many variables that the final result should be viewed with prudence. [See Disclaimer]

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 importer’s own name or sourcing company. For example, WalMart exceeded a million TEUs in imports over a decade ago and our figures “only” show just under 94,889 TEUs. A number of the other name mega-retailers and online-retailers have similar under reporting of their overall imports. In this year’s data Target doesn’t even make the list, although through unofficial incidental data we can make estimates that put the mega-retailer probably over 200,000 TEUs. And Amazon, which led the ranking for the last two years posted a meager 21,773 TEUs in 2022 but similar to WalMart’s case, likely had numbers in excess of 400,000 TEUs. A similar case can be made for Home Depot at 59^th which posted just over 18,000 TEUs after nearly hitting 72,000 TEUs in the 2022 chart.

In some cases, the data for previous years is NA or Not Available which in most instances, such as BMW North America simply means it didn’t make the “Top 100” lists. In other cases, the reporting has changed, and the data isn’t available in any meaningful way – the numbers are simply too low.

Other incidental data does help fill in some blanks – deliveries to known DCs and warehouses or handling by 3PL (third party logistics providers) can in instances be traced to the BCO (beneficial cargo owner).

However, even with the above-mentioned caveats, the TEU totals do give a fair representation of year-to-year “activity” and are an interesting barometer to trade and trading behavior.

Chart Highlights

This year’s chart leader is Dole with 234,000 TEUs. Dole consistently has posted TEU totals in 230,000-240,000 range. Interestingly, fruit/produce suppliers again were high on the Top 100 list. Chiquita came in number 3 at over a 171,000 TEUs while Del Monte tapped in at 7th with over 143,000 TEUs. A little farther down, Fyffes Tropical at 28^th posted nearly 35,000 TEUs while the Sol Group just behind at 29^th checked in with nearly 31,000 TEUs.

Samsung America placed 2^nd and notched almost 176,000 TEUs while rival LG Electronics USA was 5th with over 155,000 TEUs.

Almost every year, Ikea is the top in home furnishings. This year Ikea was 4^th on the list at over 170,000 TEUs. But the sector is well represented as Room To Go (RTG) was 12^th and topped 58,000 while At Homes Stores at 23rd hit nearly 41,000 TEUs and Euromarket Designs (Crate and Barrel) at 25th tipped 38,000 TEUs. Living Spaces came in at 39^th with 24,000 TEUs while Ashley Furniture at 41^st hit just over 23,000 TEUs

Other regular “top of the chart” makers were present in this year’s version. Nike at 8^th and Adidas 11^th posted 110,000 TEUs and 60,000 TEUs respectively. Another top of the chart company Heineken 10^th imported nearly 66,000 TEUs, almost the same as in 2021.
As a group autos, auto parts and tires represent the largest slice of the chart, with 26 entries. Mercedes Benz was first in the category (13^th overall) with over 57,000 TEUs, followed closely by Michelin (14^th) with over 54,000 TEUs, Continental Tire (17^th) at 48,705 TEUs and Yokohama (18^th) with 47,249 TEUs.

As in all years the importers listed within the chart have great variety, reflecting the vast array of commodities imported into North America. Interestingly, many importers posted better figures in 2022 than 2021, albeit considering reporting changes. Already in this year, the data is reflecting the influence of inflation and higher interest rates. But as the recessionary trends lessen and employment figures remain strong, 2023 might turn out to be better than the “recovery” year of 2022.