{"id":97444,"date":"2025-12-16T23:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T23:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/97444\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T23:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T23:28:07","slug":"port-of-l-a-records-busy-2025-but-expects-trade-to-fall-off-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/97444\/","title":{"rendered":"Port of L.A. records busy 2025 but expects trade to fall off next year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Port of Los Angeles expects it will move than 10 million container units for the second year in a row despite President Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a> \u2014 but that number is likely to drop off in 2026 as the fallout of the administration\u2019s trade war persists.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s volume will reflect a decision by importers to get ahead of the tariffs before the duties took effect \u2014 with trade later slowing, according to the monthly report by the nation\u2019s largest container port.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a word, 2025 was a roller coaster,\u201d port Executive Director Gene Seroka said during the webcast.<\/p>\n

In November, there was a 12% decrease in volume with about 782,000 TEUs, or 20-foot equivalent container units, processed by the port. The decrease was driven by an 11% fall in year-over-year import volume.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch of that difference is tied to last year\u2019s rush to build inventories and now with some warehouse levels still elevated, importers are pacing their orders a bit more carefully,\u201d Seroka said.<\/p>\n

Still, by the end of November, the port had moved almost 9.5 million container units, 1% more than last year, leading to the expectation that volume will top 10 million for the year. <\/p>\n

The port moved 10.3 million container units last year and set a record in 2021 when it moved 10.7 million container units.<\/p>\n

However, exports \u2014 cargo shipments from the port \u2014 fell for the seventh time in 11 months in November, sliding 8%, which will lead to the first annual decline since 2021. Seroka blamed the drop on the response to the tariffs. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also seeing the effects of retaliatory tariffs and third country trade deals on U.S. ag and manufacturing exports,\u201d Seroka said. \u201cThis is a headwind we may face for some time to come.\u201d <\/p>\n

The port director said he expects that imports will decline in the \u201csingle digits\u201d next year because of continued high inventory levels, but he doesn\u2019t anticipate a drastic downturn in overall trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see the port volume falling off a cliff, and it\u2019s a pretty good leading indicator to the U.S. economy that we should take stock in,\u201d said Seroka, who added that there is much economic uncertainty entering next year.<\/p>\n

The question of where the economy is headed was highlighted Tuesday by the latest jobs figures<\/a>, which were delayed by the government shutdown.<\/p>\n

They showed the economy lost 105,00 jobs in October as federal workers departed after the Trump administration cuts but gained 64,000 jobs in November. <\/p>\n

The November job gains came in higher than the 40,000 that economists had forecast, but the unemployment rate still rose to 4.6%, the highest since 2021.<\/p>\n

Constance Hunter, chief economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, who provided a 2026 U.S. national economic forecast for the port on Tuesday, said the jobs figures offer mixed signals.<\/p>\n

The job gains were driven by the health and human services sector, reflecting a narrowing of where job growth is occurring. At the same time, more types of companies are adding jobs rather than subtracting them.<\/p>\n

Hunter forecast that the economy will grow in the first half of the year, as consumers receive tax cuts called for in Trump\u2019s \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act\u201d tax-and-spending measure. However, tariffs will weigh down the economy later.<\/p>\n

One key issue driving uncertainty, she said, is whether the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold the tariffs Trump imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration announced Tuesday that the government had collected more than $200 billion in tariff revenue this year. Trump has talked about sending out $2,000 rebate checks to consumers with some of the funds. <\/p>\n

However, a Supreme Court loss <\/a>would force the government to return, by various estimates, $80 billion or more of the money to importers, putting a crimp in the president\u2019s plans for economic stimulus.<\/p>\n

Other factors driving uncertainty, Hunter said, are the Ukraine-Russia war, U.S.-China tensions over Taiwan and the \u201cdurability of peace in the Middle East.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these things are going to conspire to keep what we call the uncertainty index elevated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Port of Los Angeles expects it will move than 10 million container units for the second year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5925,53312,53311,383,49295,4194,48,52,51,7036,47,50,49,5682,11053,1284,47278,13967,3236,68,29224],"class_list":["post-97444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-decrease","tag-constance-hunter","tag-container-unit","tag-economy","tag-importer","tag-job","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-last-year","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-next-year","tag-november","tag-port","tag-seroka","tag-tariff","tag-trade","tag-tuesday","tag-volume"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97444","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=97444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}