July Sets All-Time U.S. Import Record at 2.47M TEU Before Forecast Turns Down

Summary

The National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates Global Port Tracker put July 2026 volumes at 2.47 million TEU across the 13 major U.S. container ports they monitor, an all-time monthly record topping the 2.4 million TEU set in May 2022. The forecast then inverts: August is projected at 2.22 million TEU, a 4.5% year-over-year decline, followed by 1.99 million TEU in both September and October and 1.92 million in November. At Los Angeles and Long Beach the vessel queue stood at zero in the latest MARAD and Marine Exchange counts, indicating terminals are absorbing the front-loaded surge without berth backlogs.