Busiest U.S. ports for Chinese freight, Los Angeles, Long Beach, see steep drop in container vessel traffic

The pullback in trade between the U.S. and China as a result of President Trump’s steep tariffs on Chinese goods and fears of a recession are starting to show up in major ports data, with a steep drop in container vessel traffic headed to Los Angeles and Long Beach.

For the week ending May 3, the number of freight vessels leaving China and headed to the Southern California ports, the main U.S. ports receiving Chinese freight and other Asian trade, is down 29% week-over-week, according to Port Optimizer, a tracking system for ships. Year-over-year, the data shows a 44% drop in vessels scheduled to arrive the week of May 4-May 10.

This data is updated on a daily basis based on the vessel manifests declaring the port destination. These vessels are either scheduled to leave Asia or are already on the water and headed to these ports.

Twelve vessels are scheduled to come in this week, down from 22 the week of April 20. Measured in shipping containers, a total of 62,568 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) are arriving the week of May 4-May 10, versus 120,608 TEUs as recently as the week of April 20-April 26.

The fallout from the ocean freight slowdown is beginning to hit ground transport linked to ports.

“We are at a tipping point on the West Coast,” said Ken Adamo, chief of analytics at DAT Freight & Analytics. “Looking at how many truck loads are available versus trucks, we’ve seen a precipitous drop, over 700,000 loads have evaporated nationally in the past week compared to two weeks prior,” he said.

The vessel drop coincides with a rise in canceled sailings from ocean carriers on Pacific routes that include ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Seattle, according to an alert from Worldwide Logistics informing clients of blank sailings.

The Gemini alliance between Maersk and Hapag Lloyd has a cancellation rate of 24.39%; followed by the Ocean Alliance, comprising CMA CGM, Cosco Shipping, Evergreen, and OOCL, at 18%; and the Premier Alliance, comprising Ocean Network Express, Hyundai Merchant Marine, and Yang Ming Marine Transport, at 15%. MSC and ZIM currently have a 10% rate of canceled sailings.

Ocean carriers are trying to balance the pullback in orders resulting from the tariffs and the escalation of tensions in the trade war. CNBC recently reported a total of 80 blank, or canceled, sailings out of China as demand plummets and carriers suspend or adjust transpacific services.