American maritime trade activity growth accelerated to 8% in June from 5% in May, in part due to increased imports ahead of the imposition of duties on $34 billion of Chinese exports. American exports by sea increased by 7% though there was a marked divergence between the ports. Houston saw a 17% increase, which should continue to be strong as last year’s weather disruptions coming into the comparators, while Norfolk’s fell 2%. When adding trade price movements into the mix an export signal of 12% (7% volumes plus 5% prices) was higher than imports (11%) indicates the trade-in-goods d...