Cargo numbers in the first two months of 2026 at the Port of Long Beach \u2014 which moved 1.6 million cargo units in January and February \u2014 were down 6% overall from the same period in 2025, a record year for the port.<\/p>\n
But the volumes remained \u201cpositive\u201d in February, with 767,525 twenty-foot equivalent units, POLB CEO Noel Hacegaba said on Wednesday, March 18 \u2014 a .03% increase from the same month in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cCargo volumes at the Port of Long Beach remained positive in February,\u201d Hacegaba said during his monthly Supply Chain Insight virtual media briefing. \u201cDespite growing uncertainty fueled by the conflict in the Middle East, cargo continues to move fluidly, planned shipments are on schedule and the Port of Long Beach remains a safe harbor in the sea of trade and geopolitical uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the port expects to see \u201ca few flat months\u201d early this year \u2014 which also reflects the recent Lunar New Year observances in China and elsewhere in Asia \u2014 it also anticipates a \u201cbounce back\u201d during the last six months of the year, Hacegaba said.<\/p>\n
The outlook is similar to projections by the neighboring Port of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
The early 2026 numbers were reported at Hacegaba\u2019s virtual news briefing this week, which also covered cargo flow impacts amid unrest in the Middle East and the current state of trade.<\/p>\n
The briefing focused largely on concerns in the shipping industry lately surrounding the war in Iran and other Mideast countries, and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwenty percent of the world\u2019s oil supply ships through the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d Hacegaba said, which has been effectively closed to most commercial traffic since mid-March.<\/p>\n
But, Hacegaba added, \u201cat present, there are no impacts to operations in the San Pedro Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n
All terminals remain open and operating at the Port of Long Beach, he said.<\/p>\n
Hacegaba told reporters Wednesday that the Port of Long Beach is closely following developments in the Middle East and the impact of last month\u2019s Supreme Court ruling on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, which said about two-thirds of tariffs imposed last year were unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conflict in the Middle East has added more uncertainty to global trade,\u201d Hacegaba said, \u201cand triggered broad market conditions and reactions from parties across the supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Hacegaba added, the ongoing global turmoil sparked by the outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East \u201chas far reaching impacts around the world\u201d and \u201cis sending tremors through the supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n
He described global trade as akin to a \u201ctightrope\u201d that stretches across \u201cgeopolitical fault lines.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the longer the war goes on, he said, the more impacts will be felt in prices impacting consumers.<\/p>\n
The Port of Long Beach currently sees only 1% of its petroleum coming in from Iran, Hacegaba said, with most oil that arrives on the West Coast coming from Alaska, Canada, Mexico and Colombia. But the costs, regardless, are going up for those products at the consumer level as a result of the unrest and disruptions, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe disruption at the Strait of Hormuz has already triggered a rapid rise in oil prices,\u201d Hacegaba said. \u201cWhen the price of oil goes up, the cost of shipping increases and consumers pay more at the gas pump and for many everyday goods.\u201d<\/p>\n
And as the price of gas for consumers goes up, Hacegaba added, it leaves less money to spend on other areas, thus affecting the overall U.S. economic outlook as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cSupply chains are feeling the shock waves,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just fuel that is affected.<\/p>\n
Despite the higher gas prices, Hacegaba said, the port has not seen any impact to cargo movement since POLN mainly moves goods via the trans-Pacific trade route with Asia.<\/p>\n
But global supply chains are interconnected, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this conflict persists and continues to escalate,\u201d Hacegaba said, \u201csupply chains everywhere will have to navigate higher fuel and vessel operating costs and seek alternative shipping routes.\u201d<\/p>\n
In January, the Port of Long Beach began the new year as the nation\u2019s busiest seaport, marking its second-busiest January on record, moving 847,765 twenty-foot equivalent units of cargo; that was down 11% from its January 2025 numbers \u2014 the port\u2019s best in its 115-year history.<\/p>\n
The Port of Los Angeles, meanwhile, processed 824,323 TEUs last month, marking the second-busiest February in that port\u2019s history and an increase of 3% compared to last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith so many developments affecting supply chains \u2014 from the conflict unfolding in the Middle East to the Supreme Court tariff ruling and broader trade policy shifts \u2014 there\u2019s real uncertainty across the industry right now,\u201d Seroka said in a written comment earlier this month. \u201cEven so, manufacturing flows serving the United States continue to move, and we\u2019re not seeing disruption to U.S.-bound cargo today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cargo numbers in the first two months of 2026 at the Port of Long Beach \u2014 which moved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,131,133,132,47,137,100,3359,77],"class_list":["post-226129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-news","tag-port-of-long-beach","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226129","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=226129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}