07-17-2025, 07:57 PM
(07-17-2025, 06:47 AM)Ca Bob Wrote: I was driving down Harbor Blvd along the port of Los Angeles today. The east side of the main channel is usually full of container ships. For example, Evergreen usually had at least one, and sometimes two, of the giant ships that hold 5000 to 10,000 TEU's (that stands for twenty foot equivalent and usually means 2500 to 5000 of those 40 foot containers -- the ones that take up a full semi-truck trailer.
Today, it was empty. Zilch. Nada. Zero. No ships.
We've seen a few small tankers and a couple of modestly sized ships leaving the port, but we're not seeing the kind of cargo that would ordinarily be expected. And we're not hearing about other ports taking up the slack.
So if this keeps up, at some point we're going to start seeing shortages of manufactured stuff -- the kinds of stuff that are made in China, Japan, and Korea.
There's some kind of giant international game of chicken going on, and we're not getting a realistic account from the Trump administration. Ordinarily we would be seeing the beginnings of the buildup for the Christmas holiday season in the next few months, but that would be on top of the usual imports of car parts and electrical appliances and the tens of thousands of other objects that come out of the Chinese factories. There is also the large trade in new clothes and shoes and all that.
There is also, of course, an expected slowdown in agricultural harvesting due to the ICE raids.
The price inflation that will occur from all of these effects, separately and together, ought to be substantial, and even if Trump manages to gain a few settlements over the next couple of months, the inflation is already built into the cargo pipeline.
This made me check google and found the Port of LA container tracking page: https://www.portoflosangeles.org/busines...statistics
The latest info is for June, but it seems that traffic was normal for all of June and 2025 ytd. A sudden shutdown is going to really mess with July stats. But a little more poking around led to this article about the June numbers: https://www.portoflosangeles.org/referen...june_cargo
It seems that there was a lot of early traffic with later tariffs in mind...
The Port of Los Angeles handled 892,340 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in June, 8% more than last year. It was the busiest June in the 117-year history of the Port of Los Angeles.
“Some importers are bringing in year-end holiday cargo now ahead of potential higher tariffs later in the year,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. “July may be our peak season month as retailers and manufacturers bring orders in earlier than usual, then brace for trade uncertainty.
“Meanwhile, the Port of Los Angeles closed its fiscal year on June 30, ending the period handling 10.5 million TEUs,” Seroka added. “That marks our third fiscal year exceeding 10 million TEUs, the only Western Hemisphere port to do so. And this time we reached that mark without a single vessel backed up.”
Bobby Djavaheri, President of Yedi Houseware, a family-owned business in Los Angeles, joined Seroka for the briefing. Djavaheri discussed the impacts tariffs have had on small and mid-sized businesses.
June 2025 loaded imports came in at 470,450 TEUs, 10% more than last year. Loaded exports landed at 126,144 TEUs, a 3% improvement from 2024. The Port processed 295,746 empty container units, 7% more than last year.
After six months in 2025, the Port of Los Angeles has handled 4,955,812TEUs, 5% more than the same period in 2024.