Despite tough year-over-year comparisons, intermodal managed 4.7% third quarter growth, says the Intermodal Association of North America.

International intermodal volumes increased 4.4%, domestic containers 3.9%, and trailers led overall at 12.1%, maintaining a healthy pace.

“We saw some trail off in growth during the third quarter, relative to the first half of the year, but intermodal’s market expansion was still respectable,” says IANA President Joni Casey.

“Trailers again performed especially well at the margins. The industry is in a strong position going into the fourth quarter,” she adds.

The seven highest-density trade corridors accounted for 62.4% of total volumes and were collectively up 3.9%. The intra-Southeast performed the best of the seven with volumes gaining 12.0%.

The Midwest-Northwest, Northeast-Midwest, and South Central-Southwest lanes had growth of 8.4%, 7.7% and 6.6%, respectively. The trans-Canada and Southeast-Southwest recorded losses on international performance of 1.1% and 3.7%, and the Midwest-Southwest eked out 0.2% growth.

Intermodal Marketing Company traffic growth slowed in Q3 compared to the first half of 2018. Total loads rose 4.6% after climbing over 10% in the second quarter. Combined highway-intermodal revenue remained in the double digits, however, growing 22.9% after posting 28.6% in Q2.

The National Retail federation recently reported that in October imports at the nation’s major retail container ports slowed down from their pre-holiday peak but remain at unusually high levels as retailers continue bringing in merchandise before tariffs increase by another 25% in January.

NRF said imports set a monthly record of 1.9 million TEU in July ahead of 10% tariffs on $200 billion in goods from China that took effect in September and October, November and December’s numbers also set records for those months.