Container Traffic Through North America’s West Coast Ports

Exhibit A testifies to the dominant role played by the two big Southern California gateways in the handling of inbound loaded TEUs at the principal Pacific Coast ports of North America. Import traffic through the other major ports has been consistent since 2019, with Vancouver handling more TEUs than the Northwest Seaport Alliance Ports of Tacoma and Seattle, which in turn discharged a higher volume of inbound loads than the Port of Oakland.  

In contrast to the distribution of inbound loads, Exhibit B reveals more of a bunching up of export shares at lower volume levels. Here, though, the comparisons are skewed by the fact that, while the NWSA ports distinguish their international exports from their domestic shipments to Alaska and Hawaii, the Port of Oakland does not.