June 11, 2026
According to the latest data released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates, U.S. ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 2.05 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units - one 20-foot container or its equivalent - in April, although the Port of New York and New Jersey has not yet reported its numbers. That was down 5.1% from March and down 7.3% year over year.
Ports have not yet reported May numbers, but Global Port Tracker projected the month at 2.14 million TEU, up 9.7% from a year earlier, when imports were down sharply because of last year's "Liberation Day" tariffs. June is forecast at 2.25 million TEU, up 14.3%, with the increase also because of low imports a year earlier. July is forecast at 2.19 million TEU, down 8.4% year over year; August at 2.12 million TEU, down 8.6%; and September at 2.06 million TEU, down 2.2%. October is forecast at 2.08 million TEU, up 0.1%.
Those numbers would bring the first half of 2026 to 12.6 million TEU, up 0.6% from the same period in 2025 thanks, in part, to the May-June increases.
Imports totaled 25.4 million TEU in 2025, down 0.3% from 25.5 million TEU in 2024.
Source: NRF