The news: The Port of Long Beach moved a record 997,177 TEU in September, 25% more than a year earlier, weeks before the Vincent Thomas Bridge closes for 16 months.
Implications:
Pickups: Expect slower, less predictable drayage around the port complex once the bridge closes, with container dwell times already running high.
Gate hours: Long Beach adds evening and Saturday gates from late October for six weeks, which gives you more hours to pull boxes as the closure starts.
Rail: Boxes that leave by train skip the detours. One Long Beach terminal already sends nearly half its volume by rail.
The News
The Port of Long Beach had its busiest month in 115 years in September, moving 997,177 TEU, 25% more than a year earlier and above its previous record of 987,191 TEU. Los Angeles set its own record of 1,042,652 TEU the same month, as we wrote last week, which brought the two ports to 2.04 million TEU combined.
Imports drove the jump, rising 31.3% while exports rose 7.8%. Port officials gave three reasons more cargo came through Long Beach:
Diesel: high fuel prices make the shorter transpacific route to the West Coast more attractive.
Panama Canal: limits on canal traffic steer more Asian cargo toward West Coast ports.
Trade deal: shippers are planning around a possible US-China trade agreement.
Port officials said the record came without congestion.
Why It Matters
The docks kept up with the record, but trucks are about to lose one of their routes. Caltrans closes the Vincent Thomas Bridge in early November for 16 months, which means pickups around the port complex are likely to take longer while import volume runs near record levels.
Zoom In
About 53,000 vehicles cross the bridge each day, and roughly 4,500 of them are port trucks, according to the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association. Only about 8% of the port complex’s drayage traffic uses the bridge, and those trucks will follow marked detours on local streets, which the group says may add minutes to some trips.
The closure comes while containers are already waiting longer. Boxes headed out by truck waited an average of 2.95 days in August, and rail-bound boxes waited 6.75 days, the longest since March 2025, per PMSA data.
To keep cargo moving, Long Beach is adding evening and Saturday gate hours at its terminals from late October for six weeks, skipping Thanksgiving week. Long Beach says its terminals will stay fully open, and the Port of Los Angeles expects no impact on its terminals or rail.
Imports set the pace in September, when Long Beach took in about five and a half loaded import boxes for every loaded export, by our math.
Who’s Exposed
Importers that truck containers out of San Pedro Bay to warehouses in the region feel the closure most, since their boxes have to use the detours. Freight leaving on trains is less exposed, because rail operations at both ports are expected to continue without interruption.
Moving cargo to East or Southeast Coast ports instead would add an estimated 10 to 14 days in transit, PMSA says.
Peer Insights
Two moves are already under way around the port:
Pushing for more free time: The Harbor Trucking Association plans to press ocean carriers for extra free time on containers if detours slow pickups, Matt Schrap, its former CEO, said.
Moving more boxes to rail: Total Terminals International handled a record 59,410 rail moves in September, nearly half its volume. BNSF’s planned Barstow hub would go further, railing import boxes inland and skipping the LA Basin drayage leg.
What’s Next
Late October: Long Beach’s extended evening and Saturday gates start and run for six weeks.
November: NRF expects national imports of 2 million TEU, and NRF’s Jonathan Gold said “we’re likely past the busiest part of the year.”
March 2028: the bridge is expected to reopen.
Dig Deeper
Thumbnail photo: Regular Daddy, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
