Imports at the nation’s major retail container ports are expected to be up 3.2 percent this month over the same time last year as stores bring in the last of the merchandise for the holiday season, according to new data released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. Ports handled almost 1.7 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units in October, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. That was up 4.6 percent from September and up 7.4 percent from October 2015. A Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit is one 20-foot-long cargo container or its equivalent. The Federation expects sales in November and December to increase by 3.6 percent to $655.8 billion.