Port of Los Angeles — Monthly Loaded Container Share

Methodology

Each value is loaded imports plus loaded exports, divided by all TEUs handled in the month (loaded and empty, imports and exports), times 100, rounded to two decimals. A TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) is the standard measure of container volume; one 40-foot container is 2 TEUs. The share falls when the port sends more empty containers back than it fills with exports. That happens mainly when imports from Asia outrun U.S. exports and carriers reposition empty boxes to meet demand there. The share was about 81% in 1995 and averaged 69% in 2019. It dropped to 62% in 2021–22, when empty exports reached 37% of all TEUs, and has been about 65–67% since 2023. The lowest month is December 2021 (58.0%). The port's yearly tables split each month's TEUs into loaded imports, empty imports, loaded exports and empty exports, with import, export and grand totals. Every month from January 1995 is used, and its four parts are checked against the printed total. A few historical cells on the port's pages carry typos. Empty exports for September 1995 read "30,969,80" and are taken as 30,969.80, which matches the export subtotal. The November 2020 total reads "889.,748.15", so the four parts are checked against the import and export subtotals instead. In June 1997, April and November 2002, March 2005, December 2011 and November 2022 a subtotal or part is off by up to 50 TEUs, at most 0.01% of the month. The four parts are used as printed. Their sum matches the port's total-TEU series in every month except November 2002 (50 TEUs over) and March 2005 (0.3 TEUs over). The port can revise recent months.

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Source

Port of Los Angeles, Historical TEU Statistics (yearly tables, 1995–2026): https://www.portoflosangeles.org/business/statistics/container-statistics/historical-teu-statistics-2026 — figures as published on 14 October 2026.