(Bloomberg) — U.S. importers are rushing goods into the nation’s two busiest ports, pushing up ocean transport costs during the wait for more tariffs and an extended bout of economic uncertainty stemming from the Iran war.
Dockworkers at the Port of Los Angeles handled more than a million containers last month, making it the busiest June on record, according to executive director Gene Seroka. He told reporters Wednesday that businesses are adapting to disruptions and rising costs by moving cargo when conditions are favorable rather than following usual seasonal shipping patterns.
The U.S.’s top port processed more than 530,500 loaded inbound containers in June, an increase of 13% compared with last year, according to LA port data tracking volumes in 20-foot container equivalent units, or TEUs. Exports held steady at 126,365 and empties mainly headed for Asia climbed 17% to about 345,800.
Demand is the main driver of higher spot shipping rates. Drewry figures on Shanghai-to-Los Angeles routes show a 10-week advance, with the cost per 40-foot container reaching $6,482 last week, the highest since 2024 but still only about half its 2021 peak.
Those increases are improving prospects for carriers including A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S and Hapag-Lloyd AG, both of which have boosted their second-half profit outlooks in recent weeks. Shares of Matson Inc., a smaller Honolulu-based container line that specializes in express transpacific services, have surged about 70% this year.
One of Matson’s destinations is the Port of Long Beach, the nation’s second-busiest gateway for seaborne trade. Long Beach’s total volumes, like neighboring LA, showed solid gains last month from a year earlier, according to figures published earlier this week.
Long Beach posted its third-busiest June on record, moving more than 779,000 TEUs, a 10.6% increase over the same month last year. Imports rose 11% to more than 387,000 containers, exports fell 1% to about 86,000 TEUs. The number of empty containers climbed 14% to nearly 306,000, according to port data.
Combined, loaded imports for both LA and Long Beach in the first half topped 5 million TEUs — a threshold only surpassed during the Covid years of 2021 and 2022.
But some trade analysts say the surge represents an early peak season and may not be sustainable.
“You’re pulling forward demand that otherwise would’ve come later,” Judah Levine, head of research at cargo booking platform Freightos, said during a webinar on Wednesday. “We’re already hearing about space becoming more available” and some carriers offering discounts, he said.
Shifts in apparel orders illustrate what’s playing out. The annual peak in imports is usually sometime between July and October as cargo owners stock goods for the back-to-school season and the holidays in the fourth quarter.
That trend happens “almost without fail,” according to Kyle Henderson, chief executive officer of supply-chain visibility platform Vizion.
But last month, combined bookings of knit and woven goods were higher “than any single month in the last three years, in a month that’s never once been the peak,” he wrote in a recent social media post.
Splicing the data further and focusing on the woven category helps explain why this year is different.
‘Moving Early’
“Knit is the steady half of this trade, the basics that replenish year-round. Woven is the structured stuff, denim and jackets and tailored fall goods, bought in seasonal waves,” Henderson said. “Woven more than doubled year-over-year and carried over half of June’s gain. When the fall-goods chapter spikes in June, that’s inventory moving early.”
The National Retail Federation expects the peak season to continue through this month and may hit a new all-time record in July, according the group’s Global Port Tracker report, published last week with Hackett Associates.
President Donald Trump’s temporary 10% tariffs on major US trading partners expire July 24, but he’s expected to announce other import taxes under other authorities.
“This year’s early peak season is expected to continue through July as retailers and other importers prepare for potentially higher tariffs beginning in August and other trade uncertainties,” NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said in a statement, noting continued supply chain impacts from the conflict in Iran.
Imports are expected to drop 4.5% in August compared to a year before, and will continue falling through at least November, according to the port tracker projection.
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