The Port of Los Angeles saw a sharp drop in cargo volume last month, marking its slowest May in more than two years and ending a 10-month streak of year-over-year growth, officials said.
The port handled 716,619 container units in May, a 5% decline from a year earlier and 19% less than April.
Officials attributed the slowdown to uncertainty over new tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump earlier this year on a wide range of imports.
“Unless long-term, comprehensive trade agreements are reached soon, we’ll likely see higher prices and less selection during the year-end holiday season,” Port Executive Director Gene Seroka said during a media briefing Friday. “The uncertainty created by fast-changing tariff policies has caused hardships for consumers, businesses and labor.”
Imports fell 9% compared to last May, totaling just under 356,000 units. Exports dropped 5%, with about 120,000 units shipped overseas. The number of empty containers moved increased slightly to more than 240,000, a 2% rise over 2024.
Despite the May dip, total cargo volume for the first five months of 2025 is up 4% from the same period last year.
The Port of Los Angeles is one of the most crucial import gateways in the world, shipping and receiving more containers than anywhere else in the western hemisphere. In 2024, the port generated $333 billion in trade as it handled more than 10.3 million container units.
Any decline in the port’s productivity could have wide-reaching impacts on the country.
Ernie Tedeschi, Director of Economics at The Budget Lab at Yale, joined Seroka at the briefing and warned of the toll tariffs could take on consumers.
“Tariffs would raise average prices by 1.5%, a loss in purchasing power of nearly $2,500 per household per year,” he said, adding that lower-income families are expected to feel the biggest hit.
Trump’s trade policy, enacted under emergency powers granted by a 1977 law, includes sweeping tariffs on imports from nearly every country, along with targeted levies against nations like China, Canada and Mexico.
A federal appeals court recently allowed the administration to continue collecting the duties while legal challenges proceed.
To watch Friday’s media briefing from the Port of Los Angeles, click here.
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