U.S. Port & Logistics Review, July 2025
- Maggie Mildenberger
- 40 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Key Takeaways
Ports in Asia & Around the World
Several ports around the globe are experiencing delays currently.
Most notably in Asia: Shanghai, Singapore, and Port Klang (Malaysia) are experiencing the worst of the delays. Several other ports in China and Busan Korea are experiencing minor delays.
Keep in close communication with your vendors and logistics providers to understand impacts to your projects.
U.S. Ports
The ports are operating normally, with minimal to no backlog.
See map under “Suez Canal” each arrow or dot is a container vessel inbound to the USA.
U.S. Tariffs
The 90 day pause on the tariffs announced on April 2 (Liberation Day Tariffs) is currently set to end on July 8th.
As a reminder this tariff package added a 10% baseline tariff to all imports, in addition to a specific tariff to many countries. The specific tariff was paused.
The 90 day pause on the China specific 145% tariff ends on August 14th
Keep an eye on the news for further updates on these tariff packages. Keep in close communication with your purchasing agents and suppliers to determine how tariffs may affect your projects.
Ocean vessel schedule reliability is hovering around 55% going into 2025. This represents a drop from 2023, where reliability was near 65%. It is also a large drop from 2019 and prior, which saw reliability averaging 75%+.
For US imports expect minimal delays on average 1-3 days.
US Port and Overland Overview
Fuel Updates
Ocean Fuel (VLSFO) saw a spike in June but the price is settling back down now. Overall the price has fallen since the start of the year.
Compared to 2021 and prior the cost is up 50% +.
Diesel in the USA as the start of July is $3.60 a gallon.
Diesel is still roughly 23% higher than 2019 levels, which is keeping freight prices elevated.
Additionally, average diesel prices reported by EIA.gov are typically lower than truck stop prices, and are average across large sections of the country.
National FTL rates are in flux due to container arrivals. Outbound from Southern California has seen a price spike in recent weeks.
LTL and small package rates have continued to rise, due to the nature of how those networks function.
Container Logistics
Container Costs
Costs are falling after a peak in early June, brought on by a surge in shipping following the tariff pauses.
Rough rates into the USA from Asia are $3,200 to the West Coast and $6,000 to the East Coast.
Rates are port to port only, and do not include pickup/delivery and associated fees.
Overall rates are still lower than most of 2024, but still higher than 2023 and pre-2020.
Suez Canal and the Red Sea
Starting in November 2023 most long-range steamship lines avoiding this area. Local traffic is continuing to use the canal.
Overall volume through the canal is down over 50% compared to this time last year.
Vessels inbound to the USA are continuing to route around Africa (Cape of Good Hope), which increases transit time by roughly a week.
Data Analysis
May container imports fell 7.2% compared to May 2024. May imports typically show a rise over April, with the past seven years (aside from 2020) all following this trend.
May imports from China were down 28.5% year over year.
The first 5 months of 2025 collective show 5.3% growth in imports over 2024.
West coast volumes dropped in May.
The PDF below is port-by-port review across the U.S. in July 2025 compared to 2024 & 2023.