Port of Los Angeles posts 3% rise in February cargo

The Port of Los Angeles posted a 3% increase in cargo volume for the month of February, according to Eugene Seroka, Executive Director, Port of Los Angeles.

In a March 12th media briefing, Seroka reported the following:

Volume. The Port “handled about 824,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, making it our second busiest February ever, trailing only the pandemic-driven spike that we saw back in 2022. That's about 3% higher than last year and 11% above the five-year average for February, both positive signs. “

Imports. On the import side, “We handled 434,000 TEUs in February, 5% more than last year and 14% above that five-year average. Some of that strength reflects the annual pre-Lunar New Year rush. When importers pull forward a little bit more cargo before factories shut down…in Asia.”

Exports. Meanwhile, “exports came in at 117,000 TEUs, 7% higher than last year. That's an uptick from recent lows, but we still have a long way to go to strengthen American agricultural and manufacturing exports.”

Empties. Over volume of empty containers: “We handled 274,000 TEUs, down 2% from last year. That aligns with the current demand as carriers continue repositioning equipment back to Asia during our traditional slag season.”

First two months of 2026. So, two months into the year, “The Port has handled about 1.6 million TEUs, steady cargo movement. While that's 5% lower than last year's elevated start, which was driven by pre-tariff shipments, we are still slightly ahead of the Port's five-year average.”

Projection. Seroka said: “Looking ahead, I expect a volume dip in March followed by a stronger April as retailers and others begin the replenishment cycle and particularly start seeing spring and summer fashion cross our docks. The bottom line? Even with more trade policy shifts and the events in the Middle East, it's been a predictable first couple of months of cargo flow here in Los Angeles.”

Seroka noted that March is Women's History Month in Los Angeles: “Women serve on our Harbor Commission, our executive team, and represent one third of our Harbor Department workforce. Nearly 40% of our engineering staff are women. That is double the national average. And they're helping us design the infrastructure that keeps America's trade moving forward.”

Seroka’s guest was Ronald Widdows, the former CEO of Neptune Orient Lines, who served as chair of the World Shipping Council for more than a decade, and serves as the Chief Executive of FlexiVan Leasing, a leading US Intermodal chassis provider.

WAR IMPACT

Regarding the impact on shipping and ports from the war with Iran, Widdows said:” The good news … is that most of the services that operate into the U.S. don't start or have a touch point inside the Gulf. The same thing for Asia to Europe. It's mostly in the Middle East. It is a regional impact. So, the transshipment locations that we are familiar with, Singapore, Colombo, and Salalah, which is a regional hub, are beginning to fill up. That has an impact on their utilization in the terminals, it impacts productivity, it has knock-on effects as far as how that affects vessel timing and bunching and those kinds of things, even though it doesn't directly affect the ships that are calling in Los Angeles.”

However, Widdows said there is likely to be a backup in shipments at Ports such as Singapore, and there will be a sizeable jump in bunker fuel prices for ships: “You only have so much space, and it doesn't take very long before these enormous ports like Singapore that handle almost 40 million TEUs (fill up). It doesn't take too long before all of that inter-port cargo, all that transshipment cargo, which is about 85% of all of that volume, is all connectivity. Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, it's trapped because it doesn't have the ship lift capacity to move it on to the next place.”


FUEL COST SPIKE

On the issue of fuel costs, Widdows said: “I think yesterday the price of low-sulfur fuel in Singapore was over $1,000 a ton. That's about $500 higher than it was. So, a voyage of a ship round-trip to LA from Asia is about 35 days, right? So that is almost $2 million in additional costs. For every single ship within that rotation. An Asia-Europe ship, the difference in fuel cost is over $3 million.”

IMO EMISSION REDUCTIONS

Widdows noted, “There is an effort underway right with … the IMO (International Maritime Organization) to set global standards for emissions and alternative fuels that will, over the longer span of time, have an impact on cost and optionality relative to where fuel supply can come from. But right now, the near-term supply is being constrained in various places in Asia. Some ports are unable to bunker at all for ships, and that is a significant impact on networks, not just a cost, but where you've got to take your ship to find the fuel to continue.”

As a result, “There's a challenge of developing more refining capacity to be able to produce more refined (fuel). And that's what is being burned in ships. They're not burning just the old, nasty stuff that is left at the bottom of the barrel anymore because of emissions controls. So, they are burning refined. So, where you have refining capacity, they're talking about more refining capacity being built in the US. That takes a long time with the environmental controls that exist to develop large-scale refining. The next meeting of the IMO takes place at the end of the month.”

The problem is that the Trump administration strongly opposes any transition to renewable fuels:” The US position paper that is submitted for that takes a pretty strong position. The US is not supportive of any initiative that results in any kind of trading program, emissions, or tax fees of any kind. That's going to make it very difficult to implement a global standard for shipping, whether it's environmental issues or others. Having global standards levels the playing field for everybody, and that's what the industry has been working on for more than a decade, and we'll continue to make that effort.”
The current fuel spike and shortage could have been mitigated: “In the longer term, the development of alternative fuel sources and methods would de-risk a bit the kinds of things that are happening today in the Gulf for sure.”

Widdows said there will be shortages of fertilizers and other products as a result of supply disruptions due to the war: “Quite a bit. Aluminum. There are enormous aluminum production and fertilizer. Resin that goes into plastics, it goes into the supply chains all over the world, but certainly in Asia. So important for what ultimately ends up in the U.S. and Europe but goes into supply chains in different manufacturing centers across Asia before it finds its way here in many cases.”