Three charts show that America’s imports are booming

AFTER GROWING at rates that were the envy of the rich world, America’s economy now appears to be slowing. Yet imports would suggest otherwise. In May and June the number of twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs, or a standard shipping container) coming through America’s ports rose by more than 10% year on year, according to Container Trade Statistics, a freight-data firm (see chart 1). Alan Murphy, chief executive of Sea Intelligence, a research firm, says that he would have expected growth rates closer to 3-4%.