Ordo Ab Chao.
The adage “out of chaos comes order” was likely not coined with the maritime industry in mind, yet it aptly captures recent shipping patterns at major U.S. ports. At first glance, 2025 appeared largely unremarkable, with total cargo volumes showing little year-over-year change. This followed two volatile years marked by double-digit swings—a sharp decline in 2023 and a rebound in 2024. Beneath the surface, however, the past year told a far more complex story. Retailers spent several months rebuilding inventories, in some cases overordering to stay ahead of shifting tariff timelines, while serving a consumer base that continued to spend and sought to avoid potential price increases. These dynamics helped drive record monthly volumes at several ports early in 2025. By the third quarter, though, container traffic slowed as holiday goods had largely arrived ahead of schedule. Volumes dropped sharply in certain markets, wiping out a 5-point gain from the first half of the year and leaving only a marginal increase by year-end.
For the first time in the postpandemic period, no U.S. ports posted double-digit volume changes. Gains and losses were relatively balanced, with six ports reporting increases, led by Houston’s 3.9% growth. The Port of Virginia recorded the steepest decline, with volumes down 8.1%. Despite the mixed year-over-year results, cargo traffic at eight of the 10 ports exceeded prepandemic 2019 levels. Five of those ports posted double-digit gains compared with 2019, led decisively by Port Houston, which has seen container volumes surge 43.9%.
PORT HIGHLIGHTS
(Ranked by total cargo volume in calendar year 2025)
| 1st | Following a strong first half of the year resulting from front loading of imports ahead of tariffs, cargo volume decelerated at the Port of Los Angeles, closing 2025 with minimal overall change compared to 2024. Nevertheless, total cargo exceeded 10 million TEUs for the third time ever and was 9.7% higher than pre-pandemic 2019. |
| 2nd | 2025 marked the third highest ever annual cargo volume for the Port of Long Beach, boosted by several recordsetting months ahead of a cooldown late in the year. Long Beach’s latest annual total was 2.4% above 2024, nearly 30% above pre-pandemic levels, and has grown at an annual average rate of 4.7% over the past five years, the highest level of all major West Coast ports. |
| 3rd | The Port of New York/New Jersey posted an 2.3% gain in 2025, with a steady stream of imports during the first half of the year and a surge over the summer months. Cargo volume was also the third highest annual total on record and nearly 20% above 2019 totals. |
| 4th | The Port of Savannah has been the fastest-growing major container gateway on the East coast since 2019, with a 24% spike in cargo volume. 2025 marked its second-busiest year on record with an annual increase of 2.8%. A major expansion project supports Savannah’s growth. |
| 5th | The Port of Houston, which is undergoing major infrastructure improvements, continues to outperform all other major U.S. shipping ports, gaining 3.9% in container traffic in 2025 while surging past four million TEUs for the first time. Total volume was 43.9% higher than 2019. |
| 6th | Shipping volumes at the Port of Virginia fell 8.1% in 2025, in large part due to inflated figures in 2024 when it was the principal beneficiary of diverted cargo from the Port of Baltimore, following the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. Despite the decrease, Virginia’s port recorded double-digit growth when compared to pre-pandemic 2019. |
| 7th | After recording double-digit annual growth in 2024, cargo volumes declined by 5.5% at the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma in 2025, despite strong demand earlier in the year. It is one of two ports that has experienced negative average annual growth over the past five years and shipping totals below 2019 levels. |
| 8th | The Port of Charleston posted its third best year in 2025, as cargo volumes increased by 2.7%. While not experiencing the post-pandemic double-digit surge like many of its East coast peers, Charleston’s growth is steady and the rise in advanced manufacturing and population growth in the Southeast should help it maintain that momentum. |
| 9th | The South Florida combination of Port Miami and Port Everglades recorded their second highest totals in 2025, including an all-time record for Port Everglades. The 3.4% increase in overall volume was the best among major East Coast ports. Continued infrastructure improvements helped accommodate the growth. |
| 10th | Overall cargo volume was flat at the Port of Oakland in 2025, decreasing by a fraction of a point. The Northern California port joined Seattle and Tacoma in posting negative average annual growth over the past five years and shipping totals below 2019 levels, dropping it back to No. 10 in the overall major port rankings. |
After ceding share over the previous two years, the East and Gulf coasts regained a modest portion of total volume, with Southeast ports outperforming those in the Northeast and MidAtlantic. This shift reflected continued population growth in the region and strengthening trade with the Caribbean and Latin America. By contrast, tariff uncertainty tied to Asia weighed on West Coast gateways, where Long Beach was the lone port to post a volume increase.
In the short term, cargo flow at major U.S. shipping ports may remain a bit volatile, with declining volume totals anticipated in the first half of 2026 as many retailers are oversupplied. On the positive side, shippers are operating with a clearer understanding of tariff policy, even as the ultimate impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs remains uncertain. While that legal overhang may temper aggressive sourcing decisions, the broader reduction in policy ambiguity should allow importers to plan inventory flows with greater confidence, supporting more consistent cargo volumes as the year moves on, compared with the volatility of recent years. The hope is that, eventually, port activity in 2026 will become more orderly, logging modest volume increases anchored by evolving supplychain strategies instead of shortterm trade policy reactions.
Matt Dolly is Research Director for Transwestern’s Industrial Group and the firm’s Strategic Account Management program. He delivers local and national commercial real estate and economic trends, analyses and reports to team members, clients, prospects and the media.
SEE ALSO:
- Import Surge Sparked by Impending Tariffs Likely to Subside
- Eye of the Industrial Market Storm
- Picture the Possibilities: Simplifying Data Analysis with GIS
- Stocked Retailer Inventories Result in First Cargo Volume Decrease Since 2020
- US Industrial Market Research Report – Q4 2025
- Elite 11 U.S. Industrial Markets
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