News / Call for reforms as US will feel aftershocks of the west coast port congestion all year

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The effect of the port congestion on the US west coast in the first quarter has virtually cancelled any container growth in the country this year, according to the Journal of Commerce’s chief economist, Mario Moreno.

Speaking at last week’s TPM conference in Long Beach, Mr Moreno told delegates the congestion had prompted him to downgrade growth predictions of both containerised imports and exports through the country’s ports by over 5%.

“I have downgraded container import growth forecast from 6.8% to 1.7% ...