Likely motivated by the threat of looming tariffs, importers sent record numbers of cargo through the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach in January.

The two San Pedro Bay ports processed nearly 1.9 million containers of cargo in January – 952,733 for Long Beach and 924,245 for L.A. Both represented the strongest Januarys of all time for the ports and continue a trend of consistently strong monthly performances going back nearly a year.

“It’s encouraging to start off the year so strongly. As we head into 2025, I thank and congratulate all of our partners for their hard work,” Port of Long Beach Chief Executive Mario Cordero said in a statement. “We will continue to focus on enhancing both our competitiveness and sustainability, no matter the uncertainties in the supply chain.”

With the numbers broken down, dockworkers in Long Beach moved 471,649 loaded import containers in January and sent out 98,655 loaded export containers. Meanwhile, L.A. had 483,831 loaded imports and 113,721 loaded exports. The remainder represents empty containers moving in either direction.

Getting ahead of holidays and tariffs

Although January is typically a strong month here on account of factories in China working ahead to allow for time off during Lunar New Year festivities, last month was a significant outlier even by those standards. Long Beach’s imports jumped about 45% from the prior year and surpassed a monthly record set in 2022 by nearly 19%. In L.A., the January imports were about 9.5% higher than in 2024 and, based on historical data, appeared to have surpassed a record set just last year.

Manufacturers are also certainly eager to get ahead of any tariffs to be lobbied against geopolitical rival China and even longstanding allies in Canada and Mexico – the latter of which surpassed China to become the United States’ largest trade partner in 2023.

“A strong economy, along with importers bringing in cargo as a hedge against tariffs and ahead of Lunar New Year, were key factors in January,” Port of L.A. Executive Director Gene Seroka said.

President Donald Trump this month delayed his planned 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico after leaders in those nations seemed to appease his myriad border security concerns. (Canada was also set to have an additional 10% duty imposed on oil, natural gas and electricity imports.) Unless extended or the taxes rescinded altogether, that delay is set to end in early March.

Meanwhile, the 10% import tax on China took effect as scheduled this month, however with a twist. With the U.S. Postal Service and other fulfillment companies left reeling trying to reconcile the new tax with the endless queue of items ordered via marketplace companies – like Amazon.com Inc. and Temu and manufacturers like Singapore’s Shein that largely produce in China – that tariff was suspended for small packages totaling less than $800 in value.

Moving cargo ‘seamlessly through supply chain’

Dwell times – that is, the length of time in which cargo containers offloaded from ships sit idle before being loaded onto drayage trucks or rail cars – varied in January.

On the truck side, cargo waited about 3.25 days on average at the ports before being loaded – historically speaking, a relatively quick turnaround. Although essentially in line with the monthly averages since September, this does represent a rise from the 2.89-day average from the prior January. In fact, average times from January-August last year remained under three days.

The rail side showed continuing improvement, with an average wait time of 6.23 days – a six-month low. Still, it averaged about 1.5 days longer than the prior January’s dwell time of 4.72 days.

“The monthly improvements to rail cargo operations and the consistently low truck dwell times underscore the marine terminals’ commitment to keeping the nation’s goods flowing seamlessly through the supply chain,” Natasha Villa, external affairs manager of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, said in a statement.