Preliminary data for September 2025 from the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association indicates significant year‐on‐year declines in container volumes at several major North American seaports. At the Port of Los Angeles, inbound loaded TEUs fell 7.6 % to 460,044, while outbound loads were virtually flat at 114,693.
The adjacent Port of Long Beach saw inbound volumes drop 6.9 % to 388,084 TEUs, although this still marked a 9.3 % gain over September 2019, while outbound volumes were down 3.6 % year-on-year and off 30.9 % relative to 2019.
Together the two San Pedro Bay ports handled 15.21 million TEUs in the first nine months of 2025—up 4.9 % from the same period last year and 19.1 % above 2019
By contrast, the Port of Oakland in the San Francisco Bay saw inbound volumes of 75,716 TEUs (-7.9 % y/y, -10.8 % vs 2019) and outbound loads of 60,123 TEUs (-2.2 % y/y, -16.6 % vs 2019).
In the Pacific Northwest, the Northwest Seaport Alliance (Ports of Tacoma & Seattle) recorded 105,932 inbound TEUs (-22.0 % y/y, -19.4 % vs 2019) and 56,605 exports (-1.2 % y/y, -31.1 % vs 2019).
Meanwhile, in Canada the Port of Vancouver rose 13.0 % year-on-year to 173,522 inbound TEUs (and up 11.0 % vs 2019), though outbound loads slipped 5.8 % y/y and were 27.4 % below 2019 levels.
The figures underscore uneven recovery patterns across gateways and reflect ongoing demand softness, particularly for major U.S. West-Coast ports.
