The Port of Los Angeles had the busiest June in its history as the rush of cargo stemming from the aftermath of the U.S.-China tariff truce finally reached the West Coast.
Loaded imports came in at 470,450 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs), 10 percent more than last year. Alongside the easing of China tensions, importers had sought to get their product into the U.S. ahead of the previous “reciprocal” tariff deadline of July 9, which President Donald Trump pushed back to Aug. 1.
June’s import total was a 32 percent improvement over the port’s May numbers, which had plummeted due to mass blank sailings and cancelled bookings in the wake of Trump’s tariffs.
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Approximately 45 percent of the cargo ending at the Port of Los Angeles typically originates in China, thus causing such significant swings.
“When the pause on U.S.-China tariffs was announced on May 12, this led to an immediate surge of cargo from China to the U.S., mainly of cargo which had been held back,” said Lars Jensen, CEO of container shipping consultancy Vespucci Maritime, in a LinkedIn post. It takes time to book, load and eventually ship this cargo—and carriers only managed to increase capacity in a meaningful way from early June.”
According to Jensen, this coincided with the spike in quoted spot rates seen in the second half of May and early June.
“However, the spike in bookings (and spot rates) ended abruptly around mid-June as U.S. importers no longer saw front-loading as a useful way to mitigate the tariff risk they are facing,” he said.
Across the board, the port handled 8 percent more containers, or 892,340 TEUs, in June. Loaded exports landed at 126,144 TEUs, a 3 percent improvement from 2024.
Port of Los Angeles executive director Gene Seroka referred to the recent volume jump as the “tariff whipsaw effect,” noting that the combined cargo volume for May and June is “about the same as last year,” and also matches its five-year average.
Five extra vessels not normally scheduled to arrive at the port helped boost volume, according to the port director, with the gateway bumping that number to seven loaders throughout July.
Seroka said in a Monday briefing that he is “seeing a peak season push right now to bring in goods ahead of potentially higher tariffs later this summer,” noting that the port is estimating a throughput of 950,000 TEUs in July. That would be a July record for the Port of Los Angeles, surpassing TEUs by 1 percent.
There are multiple negotiation deadlines before for the implementation of global tariffs: Aug. 1 for goods imported from U.S. trade partners that aren’t China, and Aug. 12 for imported cargo from China.
“We’re going to probably get one last push on imports coming to the U.S. and doing as much as they can to sneak in under that new Aug. 1 deadline,” Seroka said, noting that he expects volumes to ease in August.
Citing July’s Global Port Tracker report, Seroka pointed out the National Retail Federation’s projections that U.S. ports will see a double-digit drop in inbound cargo volume from August to November.
“One thing is certain, the year-end holiday cargo orders should already be in. What’s going to be on its way is what we’re going to get for that all-important holiday season,” Seroka said. “It’s too late to try to negotiate orders at this point in time for that year-end product.”
Dr. Zac Rogers, an associate professor of operations and supply chain management at Colorado State University, said data from the L.A. port’s Signal Port Optimizer indicates that inbound peak season is already over.
While 70 percent of active loaded import containers entered the terminal in the previous four days, as of Tuesday morning, “suggesting a lot of current activity,” Rogers noted in a LinkedIn post that active empty containers suggest a “dearth of future activity” at the port.
According to the Port Optimizer, 54 percent of empty containers have been idle for 13 or more days. In total, there are 59,339 empties.
“If supply chains were expecting that another wave of inventories was incoming, we would expect to see the empties shipped back to other countries to be filled again. For reference, there were only 42,631 empties this time a year ago,” Rogers said. “Empty containers outnumber loaded containers by 15,000 at the busiest port in the Western Hemisphere. That’s not something that is supposed to happen in mid-July. Maybe there will be another rush of international inventories to stimulate peak season, but at this point is it looking increasingly unlikely.”
