The Port of Los Angeles, the busiest US container seaport, said on Wednesday it set a June cargo record as shippers ranging from retailers to data centre builders rushed in goods to avoid higher fuel costs and new US import tariffs.
The Southern California port handled 1,002,734 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) last month, 12 per cent more than in June 2025, marking the third time the 118-year-old trade gateway has topped the one million TEU mark, executive director Gene Seroka said.
June imports increased 13 per cent to 530,558, while exports inched up 0.2 per cent to 126,365, port data showed.
The adjacent Port of Long Beach said on Tuesday it processed 779,331 TEU last month, marking its third-busiest June volume on record, bolstered by an 11 per cent jump in imports.
Overall, US container imports surged 8.2 per cent in June from a year earlier, data from supply chain technology provider Descartes Systems Group showed.
The US-Israeli war with Iran has disrupted shipping in the Middle East and around the world.
Marine fuel costs have soared and some retailers and manufacturers also worry that key raw materials and factory goods could become scarce or too expensive to ship.
The administration of US President Donald Trump plans this month to implement its new tariff strategy, which relies on Section 301 of US trade law, a provision that authorises investigations into unfair trade practices.
Those new duties are designed to help rebuild Trump's emergency tariffs, struck down by the US Supreme Court in February.
(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein Editing by Rod Nickel)
