US ports are about to have their busiest month ever. According to the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates’ Global Port Tracker, container import volume at major US ports was forecast to hit 2.47 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in July 2026, topping the previous all-time monthly record of 2.4 million TEU set back in May 2022. The reason is simple: retailers are racing to get goods into the country before new tariffs make them more expensive.<\/p>\n
The trigger is a tariff deadline. A temporary 10% global tariff under Section 122 expired just after midnight on July 24, 2026, and it’s been replaced by a new round of Section 301 tariffs tied to forced-labor enforcement, applied across roughly 60 economies. On top of that, further tariff increases are expected as early as August. Rather than wait and risk paying more, US importers front-loaded as much inventory as they could in June and July \u2014 June alone came in at 2.33 million TEU, up 18.7% year over year, pushing first-half 2026 volume to 12.77 million TEU, about 2% above the same period last year.<\/p>\n
Timing matters here too. Retailers were already running lean, with the US retail inventory-to-sales ratio falling to 1.26 in April \u2014 the lowest since February 2023 \u2014 so this surge is doing double duty: restocking bare shelves and getting a jump on back-to-school and holiday goods before costs climb further. Forecasters expect the rush to cool off fast, with August volume projected to drop about 4.5% year over year once the pre-tariff scramble is over.<\/p>\n
If you’re an international shopper or a reseller who sources from US retailers, this surge is worth paying attention to for two reasons.<\/p>\n
In other words, the next few weeks may be a better window to buy than the few weeks after.<\/p>\n
It’s worth remembering the backdrop this is all happening against: the US suspended duty-free de minimis treatment for low-value imports from every country back in August 2025, and that suspension has carried through 2026. Practically, that means nearly every package entering the US now, and by extension every reshipment leaving it, moves through a more paperwork-heavy customs environment than it did a couple of years ago. Accurate product descriptions, values, and HS codes on your shipments aren’t a formality anymore \u2014 they’re what keeps a package moving instead of sitting in a customs queue.<\/p>\n
This is exactly the situation Viabox exists for. You get a real US shipping address, so you can buy directly from whatever US retailers are currently stocked up and shipping fast \u2014 no reseller markups, no waiting for a store to “ship international.” Viabox receives your packages, can consolidate multiple orders into one shipment to cut freight costs, and handles the export paperwork so your parcel clears customs cleanly on both ends. If you’ve been eyeing a US-only deal, this record-setting inventory rush is a reasonable moment to place the order.<\/p>\n
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