US Ports Experience Strong Start to 2025
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U.S. ports continued to show strong year-over-year results by reporting more gains to start 2025.
The Port of Los Angeles experienced its busiest January ever, processing 924,245 industry-standard containers compared with 855,652 a year earlier. This also follows an exceptionally busy 2024 — the port handled more than 10.3 million units, marking its second-best year.
“This January milestone adds to a great run of strong volume, with the last seven months averaging more than 927,000 container units,” Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said at a media briefing. “A strong economy, along with importers bringing in cargo as a hedge against tariffs and ahead of Lunar New Year, were key factors in January.”
The Port of Long Beach also reported its strongest January on record, as well as its second-busiest month ever. The number of containers processed increased 41.4% to 952,733 containers from 674,015 last year. The port said the results largely were driven by retailers moving cargo ahead of the anticipated tariffs on goods from China, Mexico and Canada.
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“It’s encouraging to start off the year so strongly,” Port of Long Beach CEO Mario Cordero said. “We will continue to focus on enhancing both our competitiveness and sustainability, no matter the uncertainties in the supply chain.”
The Northwest Seaport Alliance said combined January container volumes from the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., increased 25.4% year over year to 264,869 TEUs from 211,283. The port noted that the strong cargo growth was due to high vessel schedule reliability, consistent rail service and new customers. These factors allowed the port to exceed its five-year average for cargo volumes.
Port Houston volume increased 7% year over year to 356,407 containers from 332,961. Those volumes were also 5% higher than the 340,418 containers processed the previous month. This follows a record-breaking year with the port processing 53,066,219 tons of cargo in 2024.
Port of Oakland, Georgia Ports Authority, South Carolina Ports Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had not released data by press time.
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