The Port of Los Angeles saw another significant boost in cargo during the month of November, according to figures reported on Tuesday, Dec. 17, during the monthly virtual press briefing by Executive Director Gene Seroka.
The month saw a 16% increase over November 2023, with 884,315 twenty-foot equivalent units moving through the port.
“We are well on pace to exceed 10 million container units (in all of 2024) for only the second time in our 117-year history,” Seroka said. “All indications are that we’re heading into our best December on record.”
The pace is expected to slow somewhat around the Lunar New Year, which begins on Jan. 29, but the early weeks of 2025 before that should see another push, he said.
Consumer spending is a factor in the strong numbers, but shipments are also being front-loaded in anticipation of an East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworker strike if a contract is not signed by Jan. 15.
Other drivers include the prospect of tariffs, coming perhaps around summer, as the new Trump administration takes office.
Continued Middle East unrest impacting routes in the Red Sea also remain factors looking ahead, Seroka said.
Appearing with Seroka during the briefing was Scott Kelly, vice president of Ocean Services for the Americas at Expeditors International, one of the world’s largest logistics companies.
“Most of our customers are (in a) ‘wait and see’ (mode), trying to figure out what will happen,” Kelly said when asked what the industry landscape could bring in 2025.
“We don’t know what tariffs will look like, but cargo will move from one country to another,” he said. “Our job is to be prepared.”
Shippers have options, among them diverting East Coast-bound cargo to the West Coast to avoid strike complications. Some shipments are being diverted already in anticipation of 2025 issues to come, accounting for some of the continued uptick in numbers at the Port of Los Angeles.
Others can use air for sending freight, but that…
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