The Port of Los Angeles processed 752,520 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in March, a 3.3 percent decline from the year prior when shippers front-loaded cargo ahead of the Liberation Day tariffs.
Loaded imports for the month totaled 380,733 TEUs, a 1.2 percent reduction from the year-ago figures. However, loaded exports reached 132,129 TEUs, an increase of 7.4 percent over 2025 and the highest number of outbound containers moved since May 2024. Workers at the port also handled 239,658 empty container units throughout the month, 11.2 percent fewer than last year.
During a Monday briefing, Port of Los Angeles executive director Gene Seroka said the March numbers were strong considering a later-than-usual Lunar New Year led to 17 blank sailings in which carriers skipped the call to the California gateway.
For the first three months of the year, the port reported a 4.6 percent decline from 2025’s first quarter, processing 2.39 million TEUs. According to Seroka, this puts the port in line with its five-year running average.
“As we look ahead to April, retailers are beginning to replenish seasonal goods, including spring and summer fashion,” said Seroka.
April forecasts are projected to exceed 800,000 TEUs, which would be a decline of as much as 5 percent from last year’s 842,807 containers handled at the port. Those projections align with wider U.S. inbound cargo volume expectations from the monthly Global Port Tracker from the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates, which indicated that imports across major American ports would decline 5.6 percent year over year.
The war in Iran has largely impacted freight rates across ocean and air due to the rising oil prices, but the L.A. port chief called the conflict thus far “a concern, but it’s not a worry,” for the gateway.
“Cargo is going to be on hold [in the Middle East], whether it’s at a factory floor level, in a container at a truckyard, or even at a port terminal,” said Seroka. “These ports and terminals have done a really great job of segmenting the cargo and making sure our trans-Pacific business moves unimpeded. The trans-Pacific business is the most lucrative of any east-west trades for the service providers and shipping lines handle it. They’ll go to great lengths to make sure those supply chains remain intact.”
To shield the U.S. shipping industry from the increase in oil prices stemming from the Iran conflict, the Trump administration temporarily waived the Jones Act to allow petroleum products to move between U.S. ports on foreign vessels. The suspended legislation requires that only American-flagged, -built and -owned vessels can carry cargo destined from one U.S. port to another.
But Seroka said he did not see any evidence of foreign vessels capitalizing on the waiver.
“We had 170 vessels call the Port of Los Angeles over the past 30 days, 26 of them U.S.-flagged, five of which were container ships,” said Seroka. “I have not seen new entrants of foreign-flag variety coming here and then going up to Portland or Seattle.”
Seroka noted that the spike in oil has significantly impacted California, with the price of diesel escalating above $7 per gallon in Los Angeles, and in some cases “it’s approaching $8 at this very moment.”
“Truckers are feeling the squeeze,” Seroka said. “More than half of the 1,100 truckers licensed to do business at this port complex are small businesses—five rigs or less. They certainly are feeling the pinch right now.”
During the briefing, Dr. Jerrold Green, senior fellow for the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and president emeritus for the Pacific Council on International Policy, was critical of the recent blockade implemented by the U.S. Navy at the Strait of Hormuz—the strategic chokepoint where 20 percent of the world’s oil supply flows through.
“We’re blockading the blockaders because the Iranians were blockading first…and we are so far alone in our blockade. Washington has said that others will be joining. Nobody has raised their hand so we’re there on our own, which again makes it challenging,” Green said. “If we’re focused so heavily on the Middle East, who’s paying attention to South China Sea? Who’s paying attention to Asia? That’s quite concerning.”
Green also warned of the role Yemen’s Houthis, who entered the Iran war to fight against Israel, could play in creating more supply chain uncertainty. The Iran-aligned group is responsible for the container shipping industry largely avoiding the Red Sea since late 2023 after launching nearly two years of missile attacks on commercial vessels in the region.
“The Houthis can control the Bab el-Mandeb Strait…and the Red Sea,” said Green. “They could try and blockade or certainly slow things down there at the same time.”
