If you’re moving freight through the East and Gulf Coast ports, you’re probably watching January’s looming automation showdown with bated breath. Our latest data pull tells a sobering story: Walmart’s mammoth 238,841 TEUs through affected terminals dwarfs every other BCO — and that’s just one player in a system handling over 53% of all U.S. container volume. But the bigger picture might keep you up at night even more.

While we’re tussling with labor disputes, Shanghai just casually handled 49 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), and Middle Eastern ports are making eye-popping connectivity gains. Meanwhile, if you’re routing anything through the Red Sea, you already know the pain — we’re tracking over 1 million TEUs worth $33.3 billion playing cat and mouse with Houthis. Up north, our Canadian counterparts slog toward normalcy after their own labor standstill in November, while the Port of Los Angeles moves record volumes while actually cutting dwell times. Let’s dig in.

Port Strikes and Supply Lines: The Numbers Nobody’s Talking About

While everyone watched the headlines of October’s East and Gulf Coast port strikes, Vizion’s TradeView dashboard revealed the real story behind the disruption. Now, with automation disputes threatening another shutdown in January, the most recent data surrounding imports and importers shows what’s really at stake.

Walmart’s Ocean of Containers Dwarfs Competition

The numbers tell a shocking tale of market dominance — Walmart moves a staggering 238,841 TEUs through affected ports, quadrupling its nearest competitor, Chiquita Fresh North America’s 58,388 TEUs. The impact reaches far beyond single companies though — affected ports handle 53.3% of all U.S. container volume (11,982,255 TEUs) and 26.9% of global TEU traffic (44,618,686 TEUs).

From Beds to Bananas: Following the Freight Flow

Your furniture likely took quite the journey — furniture and bedding top the import categories at 859,078 TEUs, followed by machinery at 629,078 TEUs. The path these goods take shows clear patterns: Chinese port Yantian (CNYTN) leads origins at 735,936 TEUs, while New York Harbor (USNYC) dominates destinations, handling 3,011,628 TEUs. Savannah, Georgia, follows at 1,839,238 TEUs, with Houston managing 1,483,170 TEUs. Clearly, with such figures and moving parts, if things don’t get solved and solved fast, another strike in January would have devastating consequences.

East Side Story: Why Your Holiday Gifts Are Taking the Long Way Home

The latest import numbers are part of a bigger story impacting how goods move worldwide. While U.S. ports wrestle with labor disputes, Asian ports keep breaking records, and Middle Eastern hubs quietly climb the ranks.

Shanghai’s 49 Million Reasons to Watch the Far East

Shanghai’s port flexed its muscles with an eye-popping 49.16 million TEUs in 2023, while Singapore handled 39.01 million TEUs. However, raw numbers only tell half the story — Far East ports boosted their connectivity by 4.57% between Q1 2023 and Q3 2024. Want perspective? That kind of growth makes Walmart’s massive 238,841 TEUs through U.S. ports look like a drop in the ocean.

Middle East Ports: The New Kids on the Dock

Middle Eastern ports pulled off something impressive — a 2.75% connectivity jump from Q1 2023 to Q3 2024. Meanwhile, trans-Atlantic routes lost ground, dropping 0.63%. The message? While U.S. East Coast ports worry about automation and strikes, places like Jebel Ali and Tangier keep quietly stealing the show. It’s almost like a massive game of maritime musical chairs in which Asian and Middle Eastern ports keep grabbing seats as Western terminals stumble to keep up.

Red Sea Redux: One Year Later, Billions in Cargo Still Taking the Scenic Route

Just over one year after Houthi forces hijacked the Galaxy Leader and its 25-person crew to kick off their campaign of maritime mayhem, U.S. clothing and shoe companies have had enough. They want President Biden to more aggressively protect Red Sea shipping lanes in his final months in office.

Pirates, Profits, and Pain: The Numbers Tell the Story

According to Vizion’s Red Sea Active Monitoring dashboard, 314 vessels carrying over 1 million TEUs worth $33.3 billion are playing cat and mouse with Houthi forces. Take the Maersk Gibraltar, forced to sail around Africa’s entire southern tip with $112 million in cargo and 5,781 TEUs aboard. Major U.S. ports also feel the squeeze, with New York handling $1.6 billion of affected cargo (42,418 TEUs) and Savannah managing $1.4 billion (45,313 TEUs).

Military Muscle: Uncle Sam’s Response Under Fire

Despite U.S. military successes in fending off Houthi attacks in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, industry retailers say it’s not enough. The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), representing industry giants like New Balance and Ralph Lauren, warns the Red Sea situation has hit a breaking point. AAFA chief Steve Lamar pulls no punches: Attacks keep rising, costs keep climbing, and American businesses can’t sustain it. The group demands immediate action before inflation and shipping expenses spiral further out of control. Even with the EU launching Operation Aspides and imposing sanctions on Iran’s IRISL shipping line — the world’s 18th largest carrier with 115 ships — conditions keep deteriorating.

Canadian Ports’ Great Escape: From Standstill to Superhighways

Meanwhile, Canadian ports are slowly finding their rhythm after their own labor showdowns this month. Sure, workers are back, and cranes are swinging, but the road to recovery is proving to be a marathon, not a sprint.

Canada’s West Coast Bounces Back

Vancouver returned to life Nov. 15-20, but recovery has been choppy. While container dwell times spiked to 7.7 days from October’s healthy 4.5, they’ve since improved to 5.5 days. Rail operations are nearly back in rhythm, moving 54,000 feet daily — just shy of their normal 57,000. On the waterfront, seven vessels are working cargo while five wait at anchor and two linger outside port limits. The rail yards tell the full story: 221,846 feet of containers are spread across four terminals, with Centerm shouldering the heaviest load at 58,988 feet.

Montreal’s Maritime Comeback Story

Montreal’s port resumed operations on Nov. 16. Yet, the numbers tell the tale of a port playing catchup: 5,000 TEUs scattered across four terminals, 55,000 feet of rail cargo waiting for its next move, and 22 vessels either lined up or anchored offshore. Five container ships from CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, and MSC are stuck at the docks, with six more scheduled to join the party next week. Port officials aren’t sugarcoating it — they’re looking at weeks, not days, to get their mojo back.

LA Port Slashes Dwell Times While Container Traffic Soars

The Port of Los Angeles hit a sweet spot in October, handling a record 905,025 TEUs — up 25% year over year — while slashing dwell times to just 6.5-8.5 days. This is a dramatic turnaround from the weekslong delays that plagued the port during peak pandemic chaos.

LA’s Secret Sauce: Rail Partnerships Pay Off

During those painful pandemic days, 37,000 rail containers sat gathering dust, with 22,000 waiting nine days or longer at the Port of LA. Fast-forward to today, and only 2,300 boxes face similar delays out of 37,000 total rail containers. Credit goes to BNSF, Union Pacific, and Pacific Harbor Line for stepping up their game. The port’s executive director, Gene Seroka, has his sights set on an ambitious target: whittling dwell time down to four days, with an ultimate goal of matching pre-COVID speeds of two to three days for on-dock rail cargo.

East and Gulf Coast Blues: A Tale of Two Coasts

While LA celebrates efficiency gains, East and Gulf Coast ports paint a different picture. Vizion TradeView data reveals some eye-opening contrasts: ILM (Wilmington, North Carolina) tops the charts with a lengthy 47.2-day average dwell time, though handling just 277 TEUs. Jacksonville, Florida, follows at 32.3 days (987 TEUs), while Boston clocks 27 days (84 TEUs). Philadelphia and Houston fare slightly better at 24.5 days (262 TEUs) and 22.1 days (2,401 TEUs), respectively — but still lag well behind LA’s improved performance. No wonder many shippers rerouted discretionary cargo to LA during the recent labor disruptions.

Don’t Let Your Supply Chain Play Hide-and-Seek

In a world where your containers could be stuck in Vancouver, dodging pirates in the Red Sea, or racing through LA’s efficiency miracle, end-to-end supply chain visibility can be your survival kit. Here’s how Vizion’s suite of solutions can turn your operations from a guessing game into a strategic advantage:

• Real-Time Container Tracking: Gain access to the most complete, standardized, and detailed container tracking events via API or user interface with real-time container tracking data.
• TradeView: Monitor the live flow of any company’s shipments 30 to 90 days before arrival to destination and analyze trends across 10 years of historical supplier, product, and logistics movement data. With 900 million shipment records, more than 140 attributes per shipment, coverage spanning 190 countries, and comprehensive HS code data, TradeView empowers data-driven decisions that optimize global trade management.
• Logistics Performance Hub: Access a comprehensive suite of global logistics datasets, including Port Performance, Port Activity, and Port Pairs, to analyze shipping trends, port throughput, container dwell times, and real-time port activity, enabling smarter decision-making about containerized freight movements.

Ready to take your logistics management to the next level? Book a demo with Vizion today and experience the future of efficient and informed shipping and rail operatio