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In rare jump, New York-New Jersey leads US port volumes

The always-third gateway bested LA-Long Beach in May

Stuart Chirls
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Bayonne Terminal, Bayonne, N.J. (Photo: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey)

Key Takeaways:

  • The Port of New York and New Jersey became the busiest U.S. container port in May 2024, handling 774,698 TEUs.
  • This is a 20% increase compared to May 2019, despite a slight year-over-year decrease.
  • The year-over-year comparison was impacted by diverted traffic from the Port of Baltimore in 2023.
  • The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach experienced year-over-year decreases in May, potentially due to tariff concerns.
Key takeaways sponsored by SONAR

The Port of New York and New Jersey, a perennial third place finisher among American container gateways, jumped to number one in May.

The East Coast port handled 774,698 twenty foot equivalent units in May, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. That was off  2% from the same month a year ago, but 20% better than pre-pandemic May 2019.

The port cited difficult year-ago comparisons swollen by diverted traffic following the collapse of the Key Bridge that forced the closure of the Port of Baltimore.

From January through May, the port handled 3,729,611 TEUs, up 6.5% y/y, and 22.6% ahead of 2019.

In May tariff concerns hampered box flows at the busiest gateways as the Port of Los Angeles saw volumes slide 5% y/y to  716,619 TEUs.

The Port of Long Beach handled 639,160 TEUs, down 8.2% y/y.

Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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Stuart Chirls

Stuart Chirls is a journalist who has covered the full breadth of railroads, intermodal, container shipping, ports, supply chain and logistics for Railway Age, the Journal of Commerce and IANA. He has also staffed at S&P, McGraw-Hill, United Business Media, Advance Media, Tribune Co., The New York Times Co., and worked in supply chain with BASF, the world's largest chemical producer. Reach him at stuartchirls@firecrown.com.