Container handling through the Port of Virginia climbed 8% on a year earlier in September. For the sixth month the expansion in imports (10%) outpaced that of exports, which dropped 6%. That suggests both trends of a domestic-consumption led economy and rising trade deficit remain intact. Import growth was led by the EU, with shipments from China rising by just 2% and those from Vietnam having fallen by 1%. That’s the opposite trend to the country at large, suggesting Asian-traffic diversions via the Panama Canal stayed further south.