April 2026 Container Traffic at North American Ports

The West Coast Trade Report (WCTR) is a monthly publication of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association. The WCTR monitors container traffic through 25 North American seaports, twenty in the United States, two in Mexico, and three in Canada. The TEU tallies cited here are the actual statistics released by the ports themselves, not before the fact estimates based on proprietary models. These results to not include container ports like the Ports of Mobile, Wilmington (NC), and Wilmington (DE), which do not make their TEU numbers public. 

Analysts’ Forecasts for April TEU Tallies

On May 8, the National Retail Federation’s Global Port Tracker issued its estimate that the thirteen U.S. ports it monitors would handle 2.13 million imported TEUs in the month of April. That would represent a year-over-year decline of 3.6%. This more recent outlook is also higher than the 2.08 million TEUs the Global Port Tracker had projected a month earlier in its April 8 forecast. Meanwhile, the Descartes Systems Group estimated that 2,277,965 TEUs arrived at all U.S. ports in April, a 5.5% falloff from the previous April, according to Descartes’ calculation.

The April 2026 TEU Tallies Ports Are Actually Reporting

The Port of Los Angeles discharged 459,825 laden TEUs in April, a 4.7% gain from a year earlier and a 27.5% increase over April 2019. Outbound loads of 127,726 TEUs were off by 0.5% from the previous April and down by 17.9% from April 2019. Total container traffic YTD through the Southern California gateway amounted to 3,279,704 laden and empty TEUs, 11.4% more than in the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.

The neighboring Port of Long Beach reported 389,835 inbound laden TEUs in April, a 7.1% decrease from a year earlier but nonetheless up by 22.6% from April 2019. Outbound loads recorded 118,901 outbound loads in April, up 26.7% year-over-year but down 4.0% from the same month in 2019. Total YTD container traffic through the San Pedro Bay port amounted to 3,208,217 TEUs, up 31.8% over the first four months of 2019.

April brought even grimmer news for Oregon’s Port of Portland and cast a darker shadow on the wisdom of the political intervention that reversed the decision by port officials to pull the plug on its money-losing box trade two years ago. The 4,531 TEUs handled by the Columbia River port this April represented the lowest volume recorded in any single month since the resumption of container operations at the port in 2020. Through April of this year, container traffic has totaled 24,077 TEUs, down 21.0% from a year earlier.  

At the Northwest Seaport Alliance Ports of Tacoma and Seattle, April was also a cruel month. Inbound loads plunged 29.9% year-over-year to 73,867 TEUs from 105,370 TEUs. This April’s volume was also down 34.4% from the 112,652 inbound loads the two ports had handled in April 2019. Laden outbound traffic (46,971 TEUs) fared no better, down 12.3% from April 2025 and down 42.2% from April 2019. Total container traffic YTD through the Puget Sound ports amounted to 932,958 TEUs, 25.7% below the volume recorded through the first four months of 2019.

The number of inbound loaded boxes at the Port of Vancouver, Canada’s largest seaport, slipped by 0.2% to 166,486 TEUs in April but remained up 14.7% from April 2019. Outbound loads, meanwhile, rose by 3.5% to 72,857 TEUs from a year earlier but trailed the volume recorded in April 2019 by 25.2%. Total container traffic YTD through the British Columbia port amounted to 1,260,140 TEUs, up 11.2% from the same period in 2019,

The Port of Prince Rupert handled 37,188 inbound loaded TEUs in April, up 2.9% from April 2025 but down 39.0% from April 2019. The 16,931 outbound loads shipped from the port this April represented a 69.4% jump from a year earlier but a 16.5% decline from April 2019. Total container trade through the year’s first four months amounted to 283,655 TEUs, 18. 0% below the volume handled in the same months in 2019.

In the Mid-Atlantic Coast range, Virginia’s Port of Norfolk handled 123,257 inbound loads in April, an abrupt 9.1% drop from a year earlier but up a remarkably modest 3.3% over April 2019. Outbound loads through the gateway amounted to 94,324 TEUs, off by 1.1% year-over-year but 10.5% above the volume shipped in April 2019. Total loads and empties in this year’s first four months amounted to 1,062,140 TEUs, up 11.3% from the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.

Inbound traffic at the Port of Charleston also declined in April from a year earlier, by 12.9% to 89,914 laden TEUs. Remarkably, the South Carolina port handled just 2.6% more inbound loads this April than it had in the pre-pandemic April of 2019. However, outbound loads in April were up 8.6% year-over-year to 50,547 TEUs. Still, that volume was down 31.0% from April 2019. Total container trade YTD amounted to 771,728 loads and empties, up 3.8% over the first four months of 2019.

April was also an off month at the Port of Savannah as the 219,387 inbound laden TEUs the port discharged were down by 13.2% from a year earlier but still up by 24.9% over April 2019. Outbound loads in April (117,342 TEUs) were down by 7.5% year-over-year and down 9.6% from April 2019. Total container traffic YTD through the Georgia gateway amounted to 1,840,956 TEUs, up 21.4% from the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.