Port of Long Beach hits record throughput as China’s trade share keeps sliding
China's cargo volume at America's second-busiest port has dropped from 70% to 60% since 2019, while Vietnam emerges as a surprise runner-up.
The Port of Long Beach just posted its best August ever, moving nearly 920,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) through its terminals. That record came with an asterisk worth paying attention to: China’s share of the port’s cargo has fallen roughly ten percentage points since 2019, a shift that tells you more about the state of global trade than any headline number can.
Dr. Noel Hacegaba, who took over as CEO on January 1, 2026, laid out the numbers during a media briefing. China accounted for about 70% of the port’s volume in 2019. Today that figure sits around 60%. The gap is being filled, in part, by Vietnam, which has quietly climbed to become Long Beach’s second-largest trading partner.
Record numbers, strategic motives
August 2026 throughput hit 919,992 TEUs, a 2% year-over-year increase. Imports grew 3.6%, while exports ticked up 4%. Through the first eight months of the year, total volume reached approximately 6.68 million TEUs, a 1.3% bump compared to the same stretch last year.
A significant chunk of the front-loading is defensive. Shippers have been pulling goods into the US earlier than they otherwise would, trying to get ahead of tariffs and hedge against geopolitical uncertainty. Disruptions at the Panama Canal and congestion at several Asian ports have added fuel to the urgency, driving companies to actively diversify both shipping lanes and sourcing countries.
Vietnam’s quiet ascent
Vietnam’s rise as a trading partner is one of the more telling data points in the broader reshuffling of global supply chains. The Long Beach numbers suggest the decoupling from China is real, measurable, and accelerating.
The shift isn’t a clean swap, though. Many goods flowing through Vietnam still contain Chinese components, meaning the supply chain has gotten longer and more complex rather than truly independent. Companies are reducing direct exposure to Chinese tariff risk without necessarily eliminating their dependence on Chinese inputs.
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Long Beach bets on growth
The port has set an ambitious target: 20 million TEUs annually by 2050, supported by a comprehensive capital investment plan. Hitting that number will require substantial capital investment in terminal capacity, automation, and infrastructure.
Long Beach has been investing heavily in modernization for years, deploying zero-emission cargo handling equipment at scale, with capital plans that include deeper berths capable of accommodating the largest container vessels afloat.
Hacegaba has been at the port since 2010, working his way through various executive roles before stepping into the top job on January 1, 2026.
What this means for the trade landscape
China remains the dominant source of goods at the port by a wide margin. A 60% share is still enormous. But the trajectory points unmistakably toward a more distributed sourcing model.
The front-loading behavior visible in the August numbers suggests that many importers still view the current tariff environment as unstable enough to justify paying for early delivery rather than risk getting caught by a rate change. Splitting production across multiple countries means managing more suppliers, more logistics partners, and more regulatory environments.