Preliminary May 2025 TEUs

The Pacific Merchant Shipping Association’s West Coast Trade Report is a monthly publication that 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 a priori estimates based on proprietary models or algorithms. However, as the tardy numbers become available, the Facts & Figures tables on the PMSA website will be promptly updated.

What others are saying about May’s TEU Traffic

On June 9, before any major port had released TEU tallies for May, two major container trade monitors released their projections for container import traffic during the year’s fifth month. The National Retail Federation’s Global Port Tracker projected that 1.91 million TEUs laden with goods from abroad would arrive in May at the thirteen U.S. mainland ports it surveys. That would represent a year-over-year decline of 8.1% and the lowest monthly volume of inbound loads since December 2023. Meanwhile, a more encompassing estimate from the Descartes Systems Group pegged May’s number of inbound loads at all U.S. ports at 2,177,453 TEUs, which is said to be a 7.2% falloff from a year earlier and the lowest monthly inbound container volume since March 2024.

What the ports themselves are saying about May

Starting in Southern California, the Port of Los Angeles reported 355,950 inbound loaded TEUs in May, an 8.9% falloff from a year earlier and a 16.8% decline from the pre-pandemic May of 2019. Outbound loads (120,196 TEUs) in May were off by 4.6% year-over-year and down 28.2% from May 2019. Total container traffic (loaded as well as empty boxes) this year through May through America’s busiest container port amounted to 4,063,472 TEUs, a 7.7% gain over the first five months of 2019.

The Port of Long Beach handled 299,116 inbound loaded TEUs in May, a 13.4% year-over-year decline but a 2.9% gain over May 2019. The port also saw an 18.6% drop in outbound loads to 82,149 TEUs from 100,885 TEUs a year earlier as well as a 31.9% decline from the 120,577 outbound loads handled in May 2019. Total container traffic (loads and empties) through the San Pedro Bay port through the first five months of 2025 amounted to 4,042,228 TEUs, up 34.4% from the same period in 2019.

Collectively, the two San Pedro Bay maritime gateway handled 655,066 inbound loaded TEUs in May, a year-over-year decline of 11.0% as well as an 8.8% falloff from May 2019. Outbound loads from both ports in May (202,345 TEUs) were down 10.8% from May 2024 and 29.7% below the volume recorded in May 2019. Total YTD container moves (8,105,700 TEUs) through the two ports were up 10.2% from the year before and up 19.5% from January-May 2019.

The Port of Oakland received 79,323 laden TEUs in May, a 0.9% dip from a year earlier and down 7.7% from May 2019. Outbound loads (67,327 TEUs) were up 8.7% year-over-year but down 13.8% below the volume shipped in May 2019. Total container traffic through the Northern California gateway so far this year amounted to 974,417 TEUs, an increase of 3.4% from the first five months of 2024 but down 7.3% from the same period in 2019.

Along the Oregon side of the Columbia River, the Port of Portland continues to see declining volumes of traffic through its Terminal 6 container facility. The 3,285 TEUs that arrived in May were down by 1.2% from a year earlier, while the 2,592 TEUs shipped from the port in May were down by 31.3% from May 2024. So far this year, the port has handled 36,360 TEUs, the lowest YTD volume since 2021.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance Ports of Tacoma and Seattle saw trade diminish in May. Import loads (81,642 TEUs) experienced a 10.2% year-over-year fall-off and a 13.4% decline from May 2019. Export loads (46,086 TEUs) were down 10.7% from a year earlier while trailing the export volume of May 2019 by 26.9%. Total container traffic through the two ports YTD (1,361,247 TEUs) was 13.4% shy of the 1,572,029 TEUs the ports handled in the first five months of 2019,

North of the border, the Port of Vancouver handled 178,635 inbound loaded TEUs in May, a 13.4% gain from a year earlier and a 36.8% increase from May 2019. Outbound loads (68,645 TEUs) were down 3.8% year-over-year and 27.9% below the outbound volume in May 2019. Total container movements YTD through Canada’s largest seaport (1,551,302 TEUs) were 10.0% higher than during the same period in May 2019.

The Port of Prince Rupert, Canada’s third busiest container port, handled 45,608 inbound loaded TEUs in May, down 4.5% year-over-year and 20.8% off the mark set in May 2019. Outbound loads this May (10,828 TEUs) were down by 18.1% from a year earlier and 44.4% below the volume recorded in Mau 2019. Total container movements YTD (347,151 TEUs) were down 23.6% from the same five months in 2019.   

On the Atlantic Seaboard, the Port of Charleston handled 108,428 inbound loaded TEUs in May, an 18.9% jump from a year earlier and up 23.2% from May 2019. Outbound loads in May (53,796 TEUs), while up 9.9% year-over-year, were 24.7% shy of the number of laden outbound TEUs shipped from the port in May 2019. Total container traffic YTD through the South Carolina maritime gateway (1,103,290 TEUs) represented a 9.6% gain over the same period in 2019.

Back East, the Port of New York/New Jersey has yet to release its May TEU figures.

But the Port of Virginia reports 134,724 inbound loaded TEUs were discharged at Norfolk in May, a 12.1% fall-off from a year earlier but a 12.7% gain over May 2019. Outbound loads amounted to 93,406 TEUs, down 5.4% from May 2024 but up 6.1% from May 2019. Total container traffic through the port so far this year came to 1,396,549 TEUs, 14.9% above the volume recorded from January-May 2019.

Further down the Atlantic Seaboard, the Port of Charleston handled 108,428 inbound loaded TEUs in May, an 18.9% jump from a year earlier and up 23.2% from May 2019. Outbound loads in May (53,796 TEUs), while up 9.9% year-over-year, were 24.7% shy of the number of laden outbound TEUs shipped from the port in May 2019. Total container traffic YTD through the South Carolina maritime gateway (1,103,290 TEUs) represented a 9.6% gain over the same period in 2019.

At the Port of Savannah, inbound loads in May (238,090 TEUs) edged up by 1.9% from the preceding May while posting a 28.5% improvement over May 2019. Outbound loads (119,873 TEUs) were off 0.7% from a year earlier and by 5.5% from May 2019. Total box trade through the Georgia port YTD amounted to 2,448,466 TEUs, up 29.5% from the same period in 2019.

Along the Gulf Coast, 166,005 inbound loaded TEUs were discharged at Port Houston in May, a 0.9% gain from the previous May but an imposing 55.0% increase over May 2019. Outbound loads (132,900 TEUs) also edged up by 0.9% from a year earlier but were 13.9% above the volume of May 2019. Total container movements YTD through the Texas port (1,837,813 TEUs) represented a 51.9% expansion over the same months in 2019.   

Mexico’s two major Pacific Coast maritime gateways, the Ports of Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas, combined to handle 193,494 import loads in May, a decline of 1.7% from a year earlier by a 16.2% gain over May 2019. Export loads (26,382 TEUs) have plunged 31.0% from the previous May and by 70.8% from May 2019. Total container traffic through the two ports thus far in 2025 amounted to 2,618,799 TEUs, a 45.8% increase over the same period six years ago.