The Port of Long Beach handled 919,992 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in August 2026, making it the busiest August in the port’s 115-year history and its fifth-strongest month overall. The August total was 2% higher than the same month last year, keeping one of the United States’ key trans-Pacific gateways at exceptionally high throughput levels.
The strength was visible across loaded cargo as well. Imports increased 3.6% year over year to 456,100 TEUs, while exports rose 4% to 99,754 TEUs. Empty-container movements, meanwhile, declined slightly by 0.39% to 364,138 TEUs. Through the first eight months of 2026, Long Beach had processed 6,678,078 TEUs, 1.3% more than during the same period in 2025.
The numbers come as shippers continue adapting to tariff changes and geopolitical uncertainty. Port of Long Beach CEO Noel Hacegaba said the August results showed that shippers remained confident in the gateway’s ability to handle their cargo. For logistics operators, the significance goes beyond one month of strong port activity: sustained container volumes mean continued pressure on the wider freight network connecting vessels, terminals, inland transportation and distribution. As cargo flows remain resilient, visibility into incoming freight and the ability to turn operational documents into usable data become increasingly important for keeping downstream decisions moving. FreightGraph’s AutoFill is designed to capture and structure information from freight emails, PDFs, BOLs, PODs, invoices and other documents so it can move into existing operational systems.