News
Imports at major U.S. container ports are expected to remain below last year’s levels in the first half of 2026 amid ongoing tariff uncertainty, but it is too soon to gauge the impact of the conflict in Iran, according to a Global Port Tracker (GPT) report released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates (HA).
The U.S. ports covered by GPT handled 2.08 million TEUs of containers in January, up 3.8% from December but down 6.4% year over year, although the ports of New York/New Jersey and Miami have not yet reported their data.
Ports have not yet reported numbers for February, but GPT projects the month at 2.01 million TEUs, down 1.3% year over year. March is forecast at 1.91 million TEUs, down 11.2%; April at 2.03 million TEUs, down 8.1%; May at 2.09 million TEUs, up 7%; June at 2.1 million TEUs, up 6.8%, and July at 2.2 million TEUs, down 8%.
Those numbers would bring the first half of 2026 to 12.21 million TEUs, down 2.5% from 12.53 million TEUs in the same period in 2025. The year-over-year increases in May and June are largely because of the sharp drop-off in imports in those months last year after “Liberation Day” tariffs were announced in April 2025.
