Preliminary December 2024 TEUs
The Pacific Merchant Shipping Association’s West Coast Trade Report is a monthly publication that monitors container traffic through 22 North American seaports, nineteen in the United States and three in Canada. Unlike other reports, the TEU tallies cited here are the actual statistics released by the ports themselves, not estimates based on proprietary models or algorithms. Because some ports are slow to release monthly trade data, the numbers for November are admittedly incomplete. However, as the tardy numbers become available, the Facts & Figures tables on the PMSA website will be promptly updated.
What others are saying about December’s TEU Traffic
Not all maritime trade analysts wait for the ports to post their latest month’s container trade statistics. Well before the Ports of Los Angeles, New York/New Jersey, and Savannah revealed how many TEUs they handled in the year’s final month, the National Retail Federation’s Global Port Tracker published its expectation that December would see the arrival of 2.24 million laden TEUs at the thirteen American seaports it monitors. That, if accurate, would amount to a 19.2% year-over-year gain. That would also bring the total number of inbound loads in all of 2024 to 25.6 million TEUs, a 15.2% increase over 2023.
At the same time, Descartes’ Global Shipping reported that U.S.-bound container imports would amount to 2,367,271 TEUs in December, a 12.4% bump over a year earlier. For calendar year 2024, Descartes further projected that the nation’s container imports would total 28,196,462 TEUs, up 13.3% from the previous year. Descartes noted that a monthly container import volume exceeding 2.4 million TEUs “has historically strained U.S. maritime logistics”.
What the ports themselves are saying about December
The Port of Long Beach recorded 412,876 inbound loaded TEUs in December, a 23.9% jump over the same month in 2023. Outbound loads (100,792), however, were off by 2.8%. For all of 2024, inbound loads at the Southern California gateway totaled 4,729,552 TEUs, a 24.3% year-over-year gain driven in part by troubled longshore labor contract negotiations at East and Gulf Coast ports. Outbound loads in 2024 (1,207,036 TEUs) were down 5.9% from a year earlier. Total container traffic (loads and empties) in 2024 amounted to 9,649,724 TEUs, a 20.3% increase over the prior year and the highest annual volume the port has ever seen.
The neighboring Port of Los Angeles reported 460,916 inbound loaded TEUs in December, bringing the year’s total to 5,356,680 TEUs, a 20.6% boost over 2023’s inbound load total. The 110,484 outbound loaded TEUs that sailed from the port in December brought the year’s total to 1,494,201 TEUs, a 15.7% increase over the previous year. Total container traffic (loads and empties) through the nation’s busiest container port in 2024 amounted to 10,297,352 TEUs, 19.3% higher than the previous year’s total and the second highest in the port’s history after the hyperactive 2021.
In Northern California, the Port of Oakland handled 84,870 inbound loaded TEUs in December, up 11.2% year-over-year and the most the port had processed in any month since August 2022. Outbound loads (59,535 TEUs) were down 9.5% from the previous December. For all of 2024, inbound loads amounted to 964,240 TEUs, up 15.0% from 2023 but only up 1.1% from the volume achieved in pre-pandemic 2019. Outbound loads in 2024, 776,102 TEUs, were up 5.4% from a year earlier but down 16.6% from 2019. Total container movements in 2024 (2,262,921 TEUs) were down by 8.1% from 2019.
Up in Washington State, 118,356 laden import TEUs were discharged in December at the Northwest Seaport Alliance Ports of Tacoma and Seattle, a 34.3% year-over-year bump. Export loads (65,396 TEUs) edged up by 3.3% over the previous December. Total import loads in 2024 at the two ports amounted to 1,289,198 TEUs, 19.6% higher than in 2023. Export loads in 2024 (636,507 TEUs) were up 8.1% from the preceding year. Total container traffic (loads and empties, international and domestic) at the Puget Sound ports (3,340,733 TEUs) was 12.3% higher than in 2023.
Across the border, British Columbia’s Port of Vancouver took in 145,575 inbound loaded TEUs in December, a modest 0.8% gain over the same month in 2023. Outbound loads (71,023 TEUs) were up just 0.5% from a year earlier. For the entire year, inbound loads (1,822,459 TEUs) were up 13.8% from the previous year. Outbound loads (794,724 TEUs) were up 5.3%. Total container traffic through Canada’s largest port in 2024 (3,474,524 TEUs) was up 11.1% from a year earlier.
Further north, the Port of Prince Rupert continued to operate in the shadow of a more robust past. In the year’s final month, the Canadian port handled 20,651 inbound loaded TEUs, a substantial 36.2% drop from a year earlier and 66.7% below the volume recorded in December 2019. Outbound loads (8,115 TEUs) were off by 33.1% year-over-year and were 53.2% below the level of December 2019. Total container traffic in 2024 (739,315 TEUs) was down 39.0% from 2019.
Back on the East Coast, December container trade statistics for the Port of New York/New Jersey will likely be made available in mid-February. The December container tallies for the Port of Savannah remained unposted by our publication deadline. Both sets of numbers will be posted to the PMSASHIP.com website as soon as they are posted.
Maryland’s Port of Baltimore continues its recovery from the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge earlier this year. December saw the port handle 48,036 inbound loaded TEUs, 387 TEUs more than a year earlier. Outbound loads (18,287 TEUs) were down 8.6%. Total container moves through the Patapsco River facility in 2024 (741,215 TEUs) was understandably 34.2% shy of 2023’s total.
In the Mid-Atlantic region, the Port of Virginia handled 129,308 inbound loaded TEUs in December, a 6.3% bump over a year earlier. Outbound loads (97,072 TEUs) were meanwhile up 5.8%. Total inbound loads for all of 2024 (1,627,165 TEUs) were up 6.6% from a year earlier, while outbound loads rose by 3.4%. Total container traffic in 2024 (3,523,512 TEUs) rose 7.2% from the previous year, but was off by 4.9% from the port’s record high volume in 2022.
The Port of Charleston processed 97,570 inbound loaded TEUs in December, a 5.8% decline from December 2023. Outbound loads (48,743 TEUs) were similarly down by 16.7% from a year earlier. Total inbound loads for 2024 (1,245,723 TEUs) edged up by 2.1% from 2023, while total outbound loads (655,497 TEUs) were down by 6.8%. Total container traffic through the South Carolina port in 2024 (2,497,143 TEUs) was up just 0.6% from 2023.
Along the Gulf Coast, Port Houston reported a 1.0% year-over-year fall-off in inbound loads in December, with the numbers declining to 149,396 TEUs from 150,948 TEUs. However, outbound loads (135,446 TEUs) rose by 12.3% from a year earlier. Total inbound loads at the Texas port in 2024 (1,900,096 TEUs) were up 6.3%, while outbound loads last year (1,497,749 TEUs) rose by 7.9%. Total container traffic in 2024 (4,139,991 TEUs) rose 8.2% from a year earlier.