The Port of Long Beach processed a record 9.9m teu in 2025, surpassing its previous high of 9.6m teu set in 2024, yet the headline figure obscures a significant competitive shift within San Pedro Bay that saw the port cede market share to its neighbour.
The 2.4% year-on-year increase was driven largely by tariff-related front-loading in early 2025, with imports reaching 4.78m teu while exports fell 5.5% to 1.14m teu. Empty container movements climbed 6.7% to 3.96m teu, reflecting the persistent US trade imbalance. For the first time, five of the port’s six container terminals each exceeded 1m teu annually, with two processing more than 2m teu each.
The record volume came despite Long Beach losing 2.2 percentage points of US West Coast laden import market share to the Port of Los Angeles during Q2 2025, according to Sea-Intelligence. Long Beach led the transpacific front-loading surge with 45% year-on-year import growth in January, but suffered a sharp reversal as the market contracted in May and June. Los Angeles, by contrast, posted 9.7% year-on-year inbound growth in June when every other major West Coast port was in negative territory, capturing an additional 2.8 percentage points of regional market share almost entirely at Long Beach’s expense.
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