The Port of Long Beach moved 997,177 TEUs in September — its busiest month in 115 years and a 25% jump over September 2025, port officials said Thursday. The total beat the previous monthly record of 987,191 TEUs, set in October 2024, and landed within 3,000 boxes of the 1 million mark.

Loaded imports drove the surge: 509,390 TEUs, up 31.3% year over year. Exports rose 7.8% to 91,747 TEUs. Empty repositioning climbed 22.1% to 396,040 TEUs — a signal that carriers are hustling equipment back to Asia to feed the import run.

Through the first nine months of 2026, Long Beach has handled 7,675,255 TEUs, up 3.9% on the same period last year.

Why the volume showed up now

Port Chief Executive Noel Hacegaba said shippers increasingly leaned on Long Beach as they adjusted to three pressures at once: high diesel costs, Panama Canal access restrictions, and the prospect of a new U.S.-China trade agreement. Front-loading ahead of a possible deal fits the pattern — shippers pull cargo forward when tariff terms look likely to shift.

The remarkable part is how the port absorbed it. Hacegaba said the record came with no congestion. Truck and rail metrics held up despite the surge, which matters for importers watching dwell times and demurrage exposure at the San Pedro Bay complex.

Rail did more than hold. Total Terminals International set a Long Beach monthly rail record in September with 59,410 moves — nearly half the terminal's total container volume for the month. That shift from truck to rail spreads the load across inland connections and keeps street turn times predictable for draymen.

What does this change for shippers and forwarders?

Two practical consequences stand out.

First, capacity is there, but it's being consumed fast. A 31% import jump at the nation's top-volume complex means trans-Pacific space and equipment out of Asia will stay tight while the pull-forward runs. Forwarders booking late-October sailings should expect fuller vessels out of origin ports feeding Long Beach, not softer.

Second, landside schedules are about to get complicated — not by volume, but by construction.

Vincent Thomas Bridge work reshapes gate hours

Caltrans starts a 16-month deck-replacement project on the Vincent Thomas Bridge on Nov. 7. The bridge sits at the neighboring Port of Los Angeles, but truck flows through the corridor serve both complexes. Long Beach expects to remain fully open while the work proceeds.

To buy truckers flexibility, the port announced an incentive program: starting in late October, Long Beach container terminals will add evening and Saturday gates for six weeks, excluding Thanksgiving week. For drayage operators, that means off-peak windows become genuinely usable during the closure period — worth building into appointment planning now rather than fighting daytime queues near the construction zone.

The forward view

The near-1M month tells you demand is real, not statistical noise. If a U.S.-China agreement lands, the same shippers who front-loaded this surge may keep pulling cargo to beat whatever terms take effect — which would keep Long Beach's fall volumes elevated even as the bridge project squeezes regional trucking capacity through late 2027.