{"id":149729,"date":"2026-01-26T08:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T08:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/149729\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T08:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T08:19:07","slug":"record-cargo-defies-tariffs-los-angeles-business-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/149729\/","title":{"rendered":"Record Cargo Defies Tariffs – Los Angeles Business Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year marked by a sclerotic trade policy that saw tariffs come and go, rise and fall, did not stop the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach from hosting a combined record year of cargo movement.<\/p>\n

By the year\u2019s end, the two ports \u2013 which are by several estimates responsible for about a third of the nation\u2019s imports \u2013 saw more than 20.1 million TEUs of cargo move in their terminals.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an achievement primarily borne of shippers racing to bring in as much cargo from Asia \u2013 mostly China \u2013 before tariffs would start increasing prices for consumers here.<\/p>\n

For the Port of L.A. \u2013 whose dockworkers handled more than 10.2 million TEUs \u2013 it was the third busiest year on record, only 58,000 behind last year\u2019s total.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud to say that for the 26th consecutive year, the Port of Los Angeles remains America\u2019s busiest container port,\u201d Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of L.A., at his State of the Port address last week. \u201cEvery record set and every bar raised is a direct result of the dedication and commitment of the people who make this port work.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Port of Long Beach, it was more than 9.88 million TEUs \u2013 an all-time record.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe celebrate the record cargo volume not just for the status but because we know that every container that crosses our docks strengthens the national economy. Goods movement is literally the economy in motion,\u201d Noel Hacegaba, the Port of Long Beach\u2019s new chief executive, said at his own State of the Port address this month. \u201cIn the face of historic uncertainty, cargo kept coming and we kept it moving. And, by keeping cargo moving, we kept the economy moving. Once again, we proved to be the heartbeat of the U.S. economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Noel Hacegaba is chief executive of the Port of Long Beach. (Photo by Thomas Wasper)<\/p>\n

Capping off the year, the ports combined for a solid volume of more than 1.62 million TEUs \u2013 the acronym for 20-foot equivalent units, a relatively general way of measuring cargo volume.<\/p>\n

Dockworkers at L.A. handled 791,588 TEUs, while those in Long Beach handled 834,119. When broken down, that included 424,499 and 392,153 loaded import TEUs, respectively. On the loaded export side, L.A. sent 108,075 TEUs and Long Beach sent 102,443 TEUs out. The remaining sum is represented by empty containers moving in either direction.<\/p>\n

Considering the ports combined volume for this past year have surpassed 2024\u2019s total volume is even more remarkable, since they were in negative year-over-year territory for seven months in 2025. This feat was most bolstered by January 2025\u2019s numbers, which were a nearly 350,000-TEU gain from the prior year \u2013 one of the earliest responses to President Donald Trump\u2019s administration\u2019s plans to implement new tariff policies that would disrupt trade altogether following his electoral victory in 2024.<\/p>\n

Hacegaba characterized the ports\u2019 success as defiant of the \u201cdoom and gloom\u201d that followed Trump\u2019s sweeping tariffs announcements.<\/p>\n

\u201cA year ago, amid the prospects of new tariffs on U.S. imports, some were saying, \u2018We\u2019ve seen that movie before,\u2019 referring to the 2018-2019 U.S.-China trade tensions,\u201d Hacegaba said. \u201cBut the movie we saw last year was not a rerun \u2013 it wasn\u2019t even a sequel. \u2018Liberation Day\u2019 \u2013 when the highest tariffs since the Great Depression were imposed on virtually every U.S. trading partner \u2013 was simply sweeping and unprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surely anticipating worsening tensions, shippers reacted accordingly \u2013 the first four months of the year saw significant gains in imports. Peak season arrived slightly early, in response to pauses in tariffs amid trade negotiations. It was in this window that the Port
of L.A. handled more than 1 million TEUs in a single month, in July \u2013 it\u2019s busiest month
on record.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Gene Seroka in his office at the Port of Los Angeles. (Photo by Thomas Wasper)<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom accelerated dips in volume to record highs, it truly was a rollercoaster,\u201d Seroka said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of change in our world right now,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe global trade map is being redrawn. Shifting trade policies are creating uncertainty and volatility. And the maritime supply chain is at the center of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last five months of the year illustrated this point well. Usually, the peak import
season for back-to-school and winter holidays, those final five months saw consisted year-over-year declines.<\/p>\n

It was also a year of continuing infrastructure projects at the ports.<\/p>\n

The Port of L.A.\u2019s Pier 500 Marine Container Terminal is in the requests for proposal stage. Seroka said he envisions this new development, should it come to pass, as the \u201cgreenest, cleanest\u201d new terminal in the world and vital to allowing the port to handle growing cargo volumes.<\/p>\n

That port is also presently designing a maritime support facility on terminal island to serve as a hub for chassis parking and container exchange. And Fenix Marine Terminal is working with the port on a plan to develop an unused 40-acre plot of land next to its terminal on Pier 300.<\/p>\n

At Long Beach, work continues at Pier G \u2013 operated by International Transportation Service \u2013 to fill in a slip that nearly bisects the outlet, to the tune of 19 acres of new land to use. This will also create a contiguous wharf that would allow the pier to handle the largest cargo ships on the market.<\/p>\n

Construction work also continues on the Pier B on-dock rail facility, which is slated to double the acreage of the current facility and more than triple its cargo movement volume.<\/p>\n

Exploratory work on future developments and improvements also continues.<\/p>\n

Seroka said he remains in talks with Gov. Gavin Newsom on potentially raising the elevation of the Vincent Thomas Bridge in order to accommodate taller vessels entering the inner harbor. He\u2019d hoped to achieve this during the bridge\u2019s ongoing redecking project but failed to secure funding for it.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, at Long Beach, the former chief executive Mario Cordero \u2013 who retired at the end of 2025 and paved way for Hacegaba, then the chief operating officer \u2013 helped secure a $20 million state grant toward the development of Pier W, a proposed offshore floating terminal to construct floating wind turbines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A year marked by a sclerotic trade policy that saw tariffs come and go, rise and fall, did…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132,3359,1438],"class_list":["post-149729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-port-of-long-beach","tag-port-of-los-angeles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}