Cargo flow at the Port of Los Angeles remained strong in August, Executive Director Gene Seroka said on Wednesday, Sept. 17.
The port processed 958,355 twenty-foot equivalent units last month, nearly the same as in August 2024.
Loaded imports at the Port of Los Angeles came in at 504,514 TEUs, 1% less than last year. Loaded exports landed at 127,379 TEUs, a 5% improvement from 2024. The port also processed 326,462 empty container units, a 1% decline from last year.
Eight months into 2025, the Port of Los Angeles has handled 6,934,004 TEUs, 4.5% more than the same period in 2024.
“The Port of Los Angeles moved nearly 2 million containers in July and August combined,” Seroka said during his monthly virtual news conference. “That’s the best two-month stretch for any port in the Western Hemisphere. Retailers and manufacturers have continued to bring goods in early, both to get ahead of holiday demand and to hedge against any shifts in trade policy.”
The hourlong segment included discussions with guest Vincent Iacopella, president of Trade and Government Relations at Alba Wheels Up International. Topics included how tariffs and trade policy are impacting customs brokerage and freight forwarding.
While cargo flow has remained strong so far in 2025, Seroka said he anticipates a slowdown in the remainder of the year.
“Looking forward,” Seroka said, “I expect container volumes to ease through the rest of 2025 — especially against last year’s unusually high benchmarks. That’s because much of the year-end holiday cargo has already arrived. And economic signals like slowing job growth and lingering inflation are making both importers and consumers a bit more cautious.”
The year, he said, “has been marked by volatility,” which makes future predictions challenging. But, Seroka added, “much of the year-end cargo has already arrived and is working its way through national supply system.”
Iacopella said he advises importers to stay agile in the current climate.
Not knowing what is going to happen as tariffs and other policies shift, Iacopella said, makes planning especially difficult in the shipping sector.
Among other challenges, he said, is the suspension of the de minimis rule for shipping inexpensive items that small and medium-sized businesses depend on.
The Trump administration says the exemption had become a loophole that foreign businesses have exploited to evade tariffs and criminals use to get drugs, counterfeit products and other contraband into the U.S.
The neighboring Port of Long Beach also announced its August cargo numbers earlier this week.
Cargo numbers in that port represented the second-best August on record. The port moved 901,846 TEUs in August, a 1.3% decline from the same month last year
It also was the sixth-busiest month in that port’s 114-year history, officials reported on Monday, Sept. 15, as retailers continued seeing the arrival of goods purchased during a recent pause in tariffs.
The National Retail Federation, however, said in a Sept. 9 news release that it expects cargo at the nation’s ports to “steadily decline” amid the expectation of rising tariffs. The projections are based on the Global Port Tracker report released recently by the NRF and Hackett Associates.
“We have seen the implementation of reciprocal tariffs across the globe,” NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said in the release, with a number of key trading partners being subjected to tariffs higher than the earlier 10% tariffs.”
Current and historical cargo data, including fiscal year-end totals, are available on the website.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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