The latest research from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Global Insights sees inbound container volumes to U.S. ports continuing to surge, while improvements in port throughputs means congestion and delays should be modest despite the continued growth.

The latest estimates, coming from the “Port Tracker” service offered jointly by the NRF and economic researchers Global Insights (see Retail Container Traffic to Break Records Twice This Summer). Looking across the nation’s major ports, NRF predicts July will see 1.54 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU) of container traffic, breaking last October’s 1.51 million, while August is forecast at 1.57 million TEUs. Volumes will then further ramp as the early fall peak season, driven by retail imports for the Christmas season, begins in September.

Nonetheless, congestion is rated as “low” among all ports this month, as it was the previous month, and a variety of incremental improvements in container handling at the ports and related services should mean only modest problems for importers in flowing their goods.

“The docks, rails and trucks are keeping up, so as long as we don’t see any new weather disruptions, shippers can expect acceptable system performance for the next six months,” said Global Insight Economist Paul Bingham.