'Exports to China look dismal,' leader of busiest US seaport says
President Trump's aggressive use of tariffs has upended global trade and retaliatory trade duties from China and other nations have hit US exporters like farmers particularly hard
Highlights:
- Port of Los Angeles exports fell 8% in January, lowest in nearly three years
- Soybean exports from Port of Los Angeles to China dropped 80% last year
- First-quarter total port volume expected to fall less than 10% year-over-year
Exports from the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest US gateway for ocean trade, fell 8% in January to the lowest monthly output in nearly three years, Executive Director Gene Seroka said on Tuesday.
"Exports to China look dismal," Seroka said after the Port of Los Angeles handled 104,297 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of loaded export containers in January.
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President Trump's aggressive use of tariffs has upended global trade and retaliatory trade duties from China and other nations have hit US exporters like farmers particularly hard.
Soybean shipments from the Port of Los Angeles to China dropped 80% last year, Seroka said, adding that the trade did not improve in November or December, following discussions between representatives of the two nations on the sidelines at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.
"There's not much that the United States is exporting to China these days," said trade expert Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute of Economics, who added that outgoing US shipments of everything from beef and corn to crude oil and coal also fell in 2025.
Closely watched imports to the Port of Los Angeles came in at 421,594 TEUs in January, down 13% from the unusually strong result the year earlier, Seroka said.
So far, imports in February appear relatively flat compared with a year earlier. Imports will slow in March due to China factory closures for the Lunar New Year holiday, he said.
Still, Seroka expects total first-quarter volume at the port to fall less than 10% versus the year-earlier quarter, when US importers were rushing in goods before President Donald Trump's threatened tariffs on countries like China took effect.
"I don't see the economy or cargo volume dropping off a cliff after that, and even though holiday sales were softer than we would have liked, I don't see a dire situation," Seroka said, referring to lackluster US December retail sales that signaled potential weakness in consumer spending that drives about 70% of the nation's total economic activity.
