US shipping and supply chain data

What is Vizion?

Vizion is a supply chain visibility company that tracks containers and vessels as they move through the world's ocean ports. It turns shipping line and terminal event data into a standardized view of how long cargo actually sits at each stage of the import and export process, from vessel arrival to container out gate.

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What academic researchers should know about Vizion ocean port performance data

On Dewey, Vizion publishes three related products: Import Performance Ocean Ports and Export Performance Ocean Ports, which report daily port level metrics on vessel wait time, berth to discharge time, and container dwell time back to August 2022, and Monthly Ocean Port Performance, which rolls the same metrics up to a monthly cadence back to January 2022. Each port day or port month record includes vessel counts, container and TEU volumes, and clearance rates showing what share of containers cleared the port within one, three, five, seven, or eight or more days of discharge or load. Coverage spans ocean ports and container vessels globally.

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Why academic researchers choose Vizion on Dewey

Port congestion and container dwell time are usually reported as headline statistics by shipping lines and consultancies, without the underlying port by day detail researchers need to test what actually drove a slowdown. Vizion instead publishes the event-level metrics themselves, standardized across ports and carriers, so researchers can compare vessel wait time, berth time, and gate out time across ports and over time rather than relying on someone else's summary. Because coverage runs from 2022 forward at daily granularity, it lines up well with recent supply chain shocks and policy changes. It pairs naturally with other Dewey partners for trade and macro research: TenderAlpha for government contract awards and procurement timing, Exchange Data International for currency effects on trade costs, and WARN Layoff Data for labor market effects of supply chain disruption.

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Vizion academic research ideas and use cases

• Supply chain shocks and inflation. Daily container dwell time and vessel wait time by port make it possible to test how quickly port congestion shows up in downstream prices, comparing dwell time spikes at major gateway ports against retail or producer price data for the same period.
• Trade policy and tariff timing. With daily coverage since August 2022, researchers can study how import and export volumes and clearance rates at specific ports shifted around tariff announcements, sanctions, or new trade agreements.
• Port competitiveness and infrastructure investment. Comparing vessel wait time, berth to discharge time, and clearance rates across ports and over time supports research on which infrastructure or operational changes actually shorten dwell time, and how competitiveness shifts when one port in a region falls behind.
• Macro nowcasting. Global port throughput and dwell time can serve as a leading indicator for trade volumes, using the monthly cadence of Monthly Ocean Port Performance for cross country comparisons alongside other macro data.

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