2026 Top 100 Importers & Exporters

Data center boom threatens US consumer electronics imports

By Eric Johnson

Two additional threats loom over importers of consumer electronics this year after widespread consumer inflation dented demand last year: the impact of increased fuel costs on discretionary spending and the skyrocketing price of memory due to demand from data center construction.

Containerized imports of those products dipped 2.2 % in 2025 and another 10.5 % in the first quarter of 2026, according to data from PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S & P Global. That suggests little chance of relief for consumer electronics manufacturers and retailers, especially as costs on US households continue to increase.

“ Energy prices and gas prices, that’ s going to be a headline budgetary impact on the average household,” Paul Gagnon, vice president of consumer technology at market research firm Circana, told the Journal of Commerce.“ We were already expecting consumer demand to not be great this year and that tariffs would have an impact. But food and other necessary purchases will delay demand for discretionary purchases.”

“ Any product that uses a lot of memory will be susceptible.”

Electronics

IMPORTS

1,778,577 TEUs

↓2.2 %

Change from 2024

↑1.8 %

5-year compound annual growth rate

China still leads electronics imports despite long-term slide

Percentage share of US electronics imports by origin

TEU market share

100 %

80 %

63 100 60 %

40 %

20 %

0 % L 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

China Vietnam South Korea Thailand India Other

L

Source: PIERS, S & P Global © 2026 S & P Global

The rising price of memory— up 400 % year over year in the last few months, according to Gagnon— could be an even more significant headwind for consumer electronics sales. The heaviest memory users are data centers, the rapid construction of which is leaving suppliers with little bandwidth to serve consumer products.

The impact of that dynamic won’ t be isolated to the types of products most associated with memory, like laptops and tablets, but will be more widespread since virtually every consumer electronic good now has a memory component.

“ Any product that uses a lot of memory will be susceptible,” Gagnon said.“ Even things that use memory indirectly, prices will go up.”

The way these trends manifest into container volume is not entirely clear, but Gagnon cautioned that with prices likely to increase due to the memory cost issue, retailers might see sales stay steady or rise, but on a lower volume of units. That would, in turn, hit import volume.

Electronics imports short circuiting amid memory shortage

Containerized US electronics imports, in laden TEUs, with year-over-year change

TEU volume

TEU Year-over-year % change

Source: PIERS, S & P Global © 2026 S & P Global

Year-over-year % change

36 Journal of Commerce | May 4, 2026 www. joc. com