Ports of LA & LB
Ports of Los Angeles & Long Beach — Daily Port Calls & Trade Volumes
The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together form the busiest container gateway in the Western Hemisphere and the primary entry point for Asian imports into the United States. FinzData's Global Macro Pulse provides daily port calls and estimated import and export volumes by vessel type — container, dry bulk, tanker, general cargo, and roll‑on/roll‑off — since 2019, plus live ship‑tracking arrivals and average hours in port. Traders, economists, and data scientists use this series to nowcast US import demand, track retail inventory cycles, model supply‑chain lead times, and correlate port congestion with freight rates and equity factors. Explore the data via the Global Macro Pulse dashboard or pull it directly into your models through the FinzData API.
Why the San Pedro Bay ports move markets
LA/LB handle roughly 40% of US containerized imports, making them a real‑time barometer for American consumer demand, retail inventory positioning, and trans‑Pacific freight dynamics. Container throughput leads NRF import forecasts and correlates with big‑box retailer sales. Tanker arrivals track West Coast refining margins and product supply. Ro‑ro calls reflect automotive and heavy‑equipment supply chains. Because FinzData delivers daily granularity by vessel type, you can separate discretionary‑goods cycles from staple imports and detect congestion‑driven cost spikes before they hit CPI prints.
What the data shows
The ports dataset covers 2,000+ ports worldwide with daily frequency since 2019. For Los Angeles and Long Beach you get: daily port calls by vessel category for each port; estimated import and export volumes split by the same categories; live ship‑tracking arrivals with timestamps; and average hours in port — a real‑time congestion and anchor‑age proxy. Every row is point‑in‑time: the value known on that calendar day, with revisions preserved. This lets you backtest nowcasting models without look‑ahead bias and correlate port‑level signals with US retail sales, freight futures, and logistics equity factors.
How to use it
- Track combined container call trends to nowcast US import volumes versus Census monthly data.
- Monitor average hours in port and anchorages to quantify congestion risk and model spot‑rate spikes.
- Use ro‑ro and auto‑carrier calls as a leading indicator for vehicle inventory and sales.
- Cross‑reference with FinzData Panama Canal and trans‑Pacific chokepoint transits to map full voyage economics.
- Feed daily series into factor models, VAR nowcasts, or LSTM pipelines — all delivered on your FinzData API key.
Ask your AI
Using FinzData, what were the daily combined container port calls at LA and Long Beach for the last 90 days versus 2023?
Using FinzData, show me the trend in average hours in port for container vessels at LA/LB since 2022 and flag congestion episodes.
Using FinzData, correlate LA/LB container import volumes with US retail sales ex‑auto over the last two years.
Get the data
Access the full LA/LB port series — and every other Global Macro Pulse dataset — on your FinzData API key. Get Global Macro Pulse, $195 (one‑time, all datasets, full history). Single themes like Shipping, ports & cargo are $29; add Pulse for $145 alongside any other FinzData purchase. Every key includes the last 30 days free. Query via GET https://api.finzdata.com/v1/pulse/ports?match=Los%20Angeles or match=Long%20Beach, or ask Claude, ChatGPT, or Grok with the FinzData connector.
Frequently asked questions
What vessel types are covered for LA and Long Beach?
Container, dry bulk, tanker, general cargo, and roll‑on/roll‑off — each with daily calls, estimated import/export volumes, live arrivals, and average hours in port.
How far back does the LA/LB data go?
Daily frequency since 2019, with point‑in‑time revisions preserved for backtesting.
Can I query LA and Long Beach separately?
Yes. Use match=Los%20Angeles or match=Long%20Beach to pull each port individually, or combine them for the San Pedro Bay complex.
Is the data delivered in real time?
Port calls and live arrivals update daily from ship tracking; volumes are estimated daily. Each row reflects what was known that day.