The Port of Los Angeles handled 883,053 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) in September, 7.5% lower from a year ago but enough to help the busiest U.S. import gateway to its best quarter on record.
The record volume comes amid a whipsaw of on-again, off-again tariffs, volatile decisions on trade and uncertain economic indicators.
“As trade policy unfolds, we can only predict more unpredictability,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka, in a media briefing. “When sweeping changes were first announced, importers abruptly stopped their orders from China. When those policies were softened and deadlines extended, cargo volume picked up again.
“The supply chain has been on a roller coaster all year and that ride continues.”
September loaded imports of 460,044 TEUs were off 7.6% y/y, while loaded exports of 114,693 TEUs were essentially unchanged. The hub handled 308,317 empty container units, usually an indicator of future import volumes, down 10% from the same month in 2024.
Los Angeles saw third-quarter volume of 2.9 million TEUs, its best-ever three-month quarter. Year to date volume was 7,817,057 TEUs, a gain of 3% y/y.
President Donald Trump’s declaration Wednesday that the U.S. is in a full-blown trade war with China was the latest salvo between the trans-Pacific trade partners. The deteriorating relationship has been wracked by retaliatory tariffs and tax-like fees that extend to each other’s ships as well as to container cranes and other port equipment mostly made in China.
“Approximately 20% of vessels that call at the Port of Los Angeles are China-made,” Seroka said, referring to punitive U.S. port charges, adding just one such vessel berthed this week. “Some cargo-handling equipment and cranes are also manufactured in China. Tariffs in one area tend to lead to rising prices in other segments, in the end making goods more expensive.”
Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here.
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