At nation’s biggest port in LA, dismal China trade leads freight slump

New data from the Port of Los Angeles shows that commitments made by China to buy more U.S. agricultural products as part of a trade bargain between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump have yet to materialize, and that has contributed to a decline in cargo volume to near a three-year low for the nation’s busiest port.

Total processed cargo volume at the Port of Los Angeles in January was down by approximately 12% year over year, with Gene Seroka, executive director for the Port of Los Angeles, citing a decline in agricultural exports as among the major factors. “Exports to China look dismal,” he said.

Exports to China have dropped considerably across the country’s major ports, with containerized exports down 26% last year, according to data shared by the Port of Los Angeles. Los Angeles took a big hit on the crucial agricultural export of soybeans, according to Seroka.

In early 2026, President Trump announced China was considering purchasing an additional eight million metric tons of U.S. soybeans (totaling 20 million) for the current season, following the October 2025 agreement to buy 12 million tons.

Soybeans coming out of the Port of Los Angeles to China were down 80% last year, and no improvement was seen in either November or December after the initial discussions between the U.S. and China.

“It’s a really important part of the overall export strategy here,” Seroka said. “Argentina and Brazil have picked up a lot of the contracts for China on soybeans,” he said, and he added that any increase in the U.S. farm sector’s ability to export will take time. “These are not transactional-type applications. These are agreements that the last three, six, and twelve months in duration. So it’ll be yet another cycle before the U.S. soybean exporter has a chance to bid and get into the game,” he added.

The Port of Los Angeles reported roughly 812,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) for the month of January, including imports, exports and empty containers. In January 2025, roughly 924,000 TEUs were reported, fueled by front-loading of freight ahead of not only the major holiday period in Asia but the start of President Trump’s second-term tariffs. Breaking out the container count, January imports were 421,000 container units, down almost 13% from last year’s higher levels. On the export side, 104,000 container units were processed, a close to 8% drop year over year.

Empty export containers that during times of high demand are sent back to Asia, a forwarding looking indicator of Asia demand, came in at 286,000 TEUs, a 12.5% drop from last year, according to the Port of Los Angeles.

Seroka said the elevated 2025 numbers from a period when importers were scrambling to get cargo in ahead of tariffs will continue to be a factor in comparisons throughout much of 2026. “U.S. trade…