Port of LA hits near-record cargo pace in August 2024, with continued strong shipments anticipated

The Port of Los Angeles saw “the biggest non-pandemic month ever” in cargo flow recorded in August, port Executive Director Gene Seroka said Wednesday, Sept. 18, during his monthly online news briefing.

The L.A. rollout followed that of its neighbor, the Port of Long Beach, which earlier this month reported its all-time, record-breaking cargo influx in August during a news briefing.

Some 960,597 container units were recorded at the Port of Los Angeles during August, “coming off our best July ever,” Seroka said.

It wasn’t quite an all-time record for the port, Seroka said. But at close to 1 million containers, he added, “that’s a lot of cargo.”

The Port of Long Beach’s August total hit 913,873 twenty-foot equivalent units (or TEUS, the industry’s standard for measuring cargo containers). It was the most cargo in the month of August in that port’s 113-year history.

Seroka was joined for this month’s briefing by shipping executive George Goldman, president and CEO of the North America division of CMA CGM Shipping Line, to discuss the state of global shipping.

“This peak season has been strong and sustained,” Seroka said, adding that he anticipates strong numbers to continue as 2024 comes to an end. The port, he said, is already seeing post-holiday inventory goods start to roll in as suppliers look ahead.

Consumer spending again was hailed by Seroka and his guest for fueling what has been an ongoing cargo surge to the West Coast.

Eight months into 2024, the Port of Los Angeles is 17% ahead of its 2023 pace, already moving nearly 1 million more containers than last year, port officials said.

“The American consumer continues to spend and that’s helping to power our economy,” Seroka said. “Some of the cargo arriving now is replenishing inventories even beyond the year-end holiday season. Combined with a steady flow of manufacturing parts and components, we should continue to see elevated volume in the near term.”

As negotiations continue for a longshore labor contract on the East and Gulf coasts — with an end-of-September contract deadline approaching — some shippers may also be making use of the West Coast ports, although those numbers are difficult to discern, the briefing participants said.

“Right now, we’re waiting to see what happens,” Goldman said, noting that customers — not the shipping lines — make the call on whether to divert cargo or not. “We don’t dictate diversions, that is mandated by our customers and we work with them.”

A strike lasting “one day is too long,” Goldman said.

Responding to a reporter’s question, Seroka said the Port of Los Angeles would be able to handle higher volume in the event of an East Coast shut down.

“We’ve shown we can handle this (higher) cargo,” Seroka said.

“We’re handling about 1 million TEUs a month and believe now that our capacity (going forward) will be at about 1.2 million TEUs,” Seroka added, citing projects such as on-rail dock and online data advances such as the Port Optimizer that “allows us to see around corners and see over hills in a way we’ve never seen before.”

Both Seroka and Goldman said expanding tariffs would be a mistake that would hurt consumers.

“It would have a profound effect,” Goldman said.