Historic U.S. West Coast Container Traffic by Weights and Values

USWC Shares Mainland Ports | USWC Shares East Asia

Exhibit 6 and Exhibit 7 display the latest (July 2025) U.S. West Coast shares of container trade through the mainland U.S. ports with which USWC ports compete. The data are derived from import and export documentation provided to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. For a broader perspective, we compare the most recent month for which data are available with the same month in the preceding year, in pre-pandemic 2019, and a decade earlier. For those who are inclined to add up the numbers, the USWC totals in these two exhibits include international container traffic moving through smaller West Coast ports like San Diego, Hueneme, Portland, and Everett, in addition to the container figures from the USWC Big Five ports.

Exhibit 6 shows a moderate year-over-year decline in the USWC share of all containerized import tonnage flowing into mainland U.S. ports in July. The one positive showing is that the Port of Oakland recorded a gain over its July 2024 tonnage share. However, the Northwest Seaport Alliance Ports of Tacoma and Seattle saw significant falloff in its share of import tonnage from the preceding July.

Ex. 6 USWC Ports Shares of Worldwide U.S. Mainland Container Trade

Shares of U.S. Mainland Ports Containerized Import Tonnage

	July 2025	July 2024	July 2019	July 2015
USWC	37.2%	37.8%	38.2%	37.6%
LA/LB	28.8%	28.9%	27.3%	27.4%
Oakland	3.3%	2.9%	4.0%	4.1%
NWSA	3.8%	4.6%	5.1%	5.2%

Shares of U.S. Mainland Ports Containerized Import Value

	July 2025	July 2024	July 2019	July 2015
USWC	43.8%	42.8%	47.0%	47.3%
LA/LB	35.1%	34.1%	35.8%	36.4%
Oakland	3.0%	2.7%	3.7%	3.6%
NWSA	4.8%	5.4%	6.9%	6.9%

Shares of U.S. Mainland Containerized Export Tonnage

	July 2025	July 2024	July 2019	July 2015
USWC	30.5%	32.7%	35.8%	37.4%
LA/LB	17.7%	20.0%	20.7%	22.2%
Oakland	5.6%	5.9%	5.9%	6.3%
NWSA	5.4%	5.3%	7.7%	7.9%

Shares of U.S. Mainland Containerized Export Value

By contrast, Exhibit 7 shows that a tariff-induced surge in imports has led to a 0.4 percentage point year-over-year gain in the overall U.S. West Coast share of U.S. containerized trade involving trading partners in East Asia. The numbers further demonstrate the extent to which the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have been capturing larger portions of containerized shipments through USWC ports. The two Southern California ports increased their collective share of containerized import tonnage from East Asia by 1.3 percentage points, while the Port of Oakland recorded a 0.4 percentage point gain as the NWSA ports saw a 1.4 percentage point falloff.

Ex. 7 Major USWC Ports' Shares of U.S. Container Trade with East Asia

Shares of U.S. Mainland Ports Containerized Import Tonnage

	July 2025	July 2024	July 2019	July 2015
USWC	27.5%	26.6%	31.7%	32.7%
LA/LB	17.7%	17.5%	20.5%	21.6%
Oakland	6.1%	5.4%	6.2%	6.0%
NWSA	3.1%	3.1%	4.4%	4.7%

	July 2025	July 2024	July 2019	July 2015
USWC	56.9%	56.5%	57.8%	61.1%
LA/LB	46.7%	45.4%	44.9%	47.6%
Oakland	3.7%	3.3%	4.5%	4.6%
NWSA	5.7%	7.1%	7.6%	8.5%

Shares of U.S. Mainland Ports Containerized Import Value

Shares of U.S. Mainland Containerized Export Tonnage

	July 2025	July 2024	July 2019	July 2015
USWC	65.7%	64.0%	67.1%	67.1%
LA/LB	54.3%	52.1%	52.6%	53.1%
Oakland	3.5%	3.3%	4.1%	3.9%
NWSA	7.0%	8.0%	9.9%	9.7%

	July 2025	July 2024	July 2019	July 2015
USWC	53.2%	54.7%	58.5%	60.4%
LA/LB	31.9%	35.2%	36.1%	38.1%
Oakland	8.5%	9.3%	9.2%	9.0%
NWSA	9.8%	9.3%	13.1%	12.5%

Shares of U.S. Mainland Containerized Export Value

	July 2025	July 2024	July 2019	July 2015
USWC	58.7%	54.4%	62.4%	65.3%
LA/LB	40.0%	37.1%	41.6%	45.5%
Oakland	10.4%	10.2%	11.1%	9.9%
NWSA	7.2%	6.8%	9.1%	9.5%