May 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 do 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 May TEU Tallies

On June 8, the National Retail Federation’s Global Port Tracker issued its estimate that the thirteen U.S. ports it monitors would handle 2.14 million import TEUs in the month of May. That would represent a year-over-year increase of 9.7%. The gain was attributed to the fact that imports in May 2025 “were down sharply because of last year’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs”. This more recent outlook is below the 2.17 million TEUs the Global Port Tracker had projected a month earlier in its May forecast. Meanwhile, the Descartes Systems Group estimated that 2.43 million TEUs arrived at all U.S. ports in May, an 11.5% increase over the previous April, according to Descartes’ calculation.

What the Ports Are Reporting for May

Here are the May TEU tallies that are being posted by the ports we monitor.

Southern California’s Port of Los Angeles discharged 449,370 inbound laden TEUs in May, a 26.2% jump from a year earlier but only a 5.0% increase over the volume handled in May of 2019. Outbound loads in May amounted to 107,657 TEUs, a 10.4% year-over-year decline and a 35.7% fall-off from the outbound volume shipped from the port in May 2019. Counting loaded and empty boxes, a total of 4,119,869 TEUs crossed the port’s docks during the first five months of this year, a 9.2% gain over the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.

The Port of Long Beach saw a sharp 40.0% year-over-year surge in inbound laden TEUs in May as the port discharged 418,851 loaded TEUs. That also represented a 44.1% gain over May 2019. Meanwhile, outbound loads (109,168 TEUs) were up 32.9% from a year earlier but were nevertheless down by 9.5% from May 2019. Total YTD container traffic through the port amounted to 4,050,247 loaded and empty TEUs, a 34.6% increase from the first five months of pre-pandemic 2019.

In Northern California, the Port of Oakland handled 83,809 inbound laden TEUs in May, a 5.7% increase from a year earlier but nonetheless down by 2.5% from May 2019. Outbound loads (69,284 TEUs) were similarly up by 2.9% from the previous May but down 11.3% from May 2019. Total container traffic so far this year amounted to 933,309 TEUs, down 11.2% from the volume processed through the San Francisco Bay gateway in the same period seven years ago.

May was generally an upbeat month for the Northwest Seaport Alliance Ports of Tacoma and Seattle. Traffic in inbound loads (87,186 TEUs) was 6.8% higher than in the previous May, although 22.9% below the number discharged in May 2019. The 47,608 outbound loads exported from the two ports were up 3.3% from a year earlier but down 32.5% from May 2019. Total container traffic YTD amounted to 1,170,979 TEUs, 25.5% below the total volume recorded in the same period seven years earlier.

Canada’s largest seaport, the Port of Vancouver, handled 168,646 inbound laden TEUs in May, down 5.6% from a year earlier but up 29.0% from May 2019. Outbound loads of 75,202 TEUs were up 9.6% from May 2025 but down 21.0% from May 2019. Total container traffic through the British Columbia gateway in the first five months of this year amounted to 1,559,130 TEUs, a 10.6% gain over the same period in 2019.    

May saw the Port of Prince Rupert process 38,162 in inbound loaded TEUs in May, down 15.3% from the preceding May and down by 32.9% from the 57,578 laden inbound TEUs the port handled in May 2019. While the 16,313 outbound loaded TEUs shipped from the port in May represented a sharp 50.7% year-over-year gain, the port’s containerized export trade remained 16.2% below the volume reported seven years earlier. Total container traffic YTD through the British Columbia port amounted to 357,127 TEUs, down 21.4% from the first five months of 2019.

The Port of Norfolk discharged 147,936 laden TEUs in May, a 9.8% bump from a year earlier and a 23.7% gain over May 2019. Outbound loads from the Virginia port in May (95,983 TEUs) were up 2.8% year-over-year and 9.0% higher than in May 2019. Total container traffic YTD through the Mid-Atlantic Coast gateway amounted to 1,356,444 loads and empties, 11.6% more than in the first five months of 2019.

South Carolina’s Port of Charleston saw a 14.7% year-over-year jump in its laden inbound trade in May to 103,166 TEUs. That volume also represented a 17.2% gain over May 2019. The 51,049 outbound loaded TEUs shipped from the port in May were down 5.1% from a year earlier as well as 28.5% below the volume handled in May 2019. Total container traffic YTD amounted to 986,207 TEUs, down 2.1% from the same period in 2019.

At the Port of Savannah, 258,832 inbound laden TEUs were discharged this May, an 8.7% gain from May 2025 as well as a 39.7% increase over the number of laden imported TEUs in May 2019. Outbound loads in May numbered 127,805 TEUs, a 6.6% year-over-year increase but only a 0.7% nudge up from May 2019. Total YTD container traffic through the Georgia gateway amounted to 2,353,640 TEUs, 24.5% higher than the volume recorded in the same months of 2019.

On the Gulf Coast, Port Houston discharged 188,276 loaded TEUs in May, a year-over-year gain of 13.4% as well as a 75.8% increase over May 2019. Outbound loads in May (134,934 TEUs) inched up 1.5% from a year earlier but represented a 15.6% gain over May 2019. Total container traffic YTD through the big Texas port amounted to 1,839,511 TEUs, up 52.0% from the same months in 2019.