Port of Long Beach hits record throughput as China’s trade share keeps sliding

The Port of Long Beach just posted its best August ever, moving nearly 920,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) through its terminals. That record came with an asterisk worth paying attention to: China’s share of the port’s cargo has fallen roughly ten percentage points since 2019, a shift that tells you more about the state of global trade than any headline number can. Dr. Noel Hacegaba, who took over as CEO on January 1, 2026, laid out the numbers during a media briefing. China accounted for about 70% of the port’s volume in 2019. Today that figure sits around 60%. The gap is being filled, in part, by Vietnam, which has quietly climbed to become Long Beach’s second-largest trading partner. Record numbers, strategic motives August 2026 throughput hit 919,992 TEUs, a 2% year-over-year increase. Imports grew 3.6%, while exports ticked up 4%. Through the first eight months of the year, total volume reached approximately 6.68 million TEUs, a 1.3% bump compared to the same stretch last year. A significant chunk of the front-loading is defensive. Shippers have been pulling goods into the US earlier than they otherwise would, trying to get ahead of tariffs and hedge against geopolitic...