Import volumes through the busiest trade hub in the US fell 19 percent from the month before, a fallout from President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“It’s very slow here seasonally,” Port of Los Angeles executive director Gene Seroka told reporters Friday. Seroka warned that US businesses are facing high tariffs and uncertainty during what is typically the start of the peak season, and the consequences are likely to show up on store shelves in a few months.
“We’ve already blown past summer fashion and looking forward now to back to school and Halloween before the all important year-end holidays,” Seroka said. “Cargo for those micro seasons needs to be here on the ground right now. I don’t necessarily see that in inventory levels.”
The drop in port activity came as importers and retailers — especially those with business in China — grappled with the uncertainty of Trump’s trade war. Tariffs on goods from China were as high as 145 percent in April, when many of the goods arriving in Southern California in May would have left Asian ports.
While import flows may pick up again as importers rush to bring goods during a temporary agreement between the US and China to lower the highest of the tariffs, import levies on goods from China remain prohibitively high for many businesses.
“When all is said and done, buying products out of China right now still costs one and a half times more than it did earlier this year, making products of all types extremely expensive,” Seroka said.
In May, cargo handlers at the Port of Los Angeles processed a total of about 717,000 equivalent units, or TEUs. About 356,000 of those were imports, a 19 percent drop compared to last month and 9 percent lower than May 2024, Seroka said.
Exports through Los Angeles fell to just over 120,000 containers, marking the sixth straight month of year-on-year declines as other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs, particularly for US agricultural and manufactured goods, Seroka said.
By Laura Curtis
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