The big four U.S. eastern container ports that provide early data all showed improved growth in January. In total the four reported a 19.3% year over year rise in volumes handled in January compared to 7.2% in 4Q. That was led by a 26.9% surge in shipments through Savannah due to debottlenecking of empty containers and a 22.9% growth in traffic through Charleston. All four, including Norfolk and Houston, reported faster import growth than exports – at 14.1% versus 12.5% – repeating a pattern seen in California. That would indicate an increase in the U.S. trade deficit occured once again ...