Arrivals of container ships at the busy US West Coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach (LA/LB) are slowly returning to normal after the trade war between the US and China slowed cargo movement between the two nations, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California (MESC).
Kip Louttit, MESC executive director, said the registration process for vessels bound for LA/LB projects a slight uptick in the coming two weeks.
Container ships on the way to LA/LB averaged 58.9/day in January, which fell to 47.2/day in May amid trade tensions between the US and China.
The average has climbed to 51.8/day over the first 14 days of June, and 52.1/day over the past 17 days.
“This is an indicator of a slight increase in ship arrivals over next 1-2 weeks,” Louttit said.
Louttit said there are 17 container ships scheduled to arrive at the twin ports over the next three days, which is normal.
Container ships at berth at the ports of LA/LB dipped from an average of 19.4/day in April to 15.6/day in May.
The average was 12.3/day over the first six days of June but jumped to 15.1/day for all 14 days in June, with 21 at berth on Friday and 14 at berth on Saturday.
Maritime information specialists at MESC said there are 49 container ships “blank sailing” that will skip Los Angeles or Long Beach through 1 August, which is two more than the previous week.
Blank sailings are when an ocean carrier cancels or skips a scheduled port call or region in the middle of a fixed rotation, typically to control capacity.
Peter Sand, chief analyst at ocean and freight rate analytics firm Xeneta, said capacity is returning to the transpacific trade – up 28% since mid-May – as carriers react to shippers rushing cargo during the 90-day window of lower tariffs.
“This increased capacity and a slowing in the cargo rush should see a return of the downward pressure on spot rates we saw during Q1 prior to the ‘Liberation Day’ tariff announcement,” Sand said.
Rates for shipping containers from east Asia and China to the US are at 10-month highs.
Container ships and costs for shipping containers are relevant to the chemical industry because while most chemicals are liquids and are shipped in tankers, container ships transport polymers, such as polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), which are shipped in pellets. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is also shipped in containers.
They also transport liquid chemicals in isotanks.
Source: ICIS by Adam Yanelli, https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/2025/06/16/11110850/shipping-number-of-daily-la-lb-container-ship-arrivals-returning-to-normal/