Key takeaways
- Los Angeles (10.24 million TEUs), Long Beach (9.88 million) and New York and New Jersey (8.9 million) handled the most containers in 2025.
- Long Beach, Houston, Baltimore, Port Everglades, PortMiami and PhilaPort all set container records in 2025.
- Port Houston leads the nation by total tonnage; Corpus Christi moved 203.4 million tons, mostly energy.
- Most US ports are public agencies that buy through bids and board approvals, funded by port revenue, bonds and federal grants.
Port authorities are some of the largest public infrastructure buyers in the country, spending billions on cranes, berths, dredging, rail, security and technology. This list ranks the largest US seaport authorities by the container volume they handled in 2025.
The largest US port authorities by container volume
Ranked by 2025 container throughput in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), as reported by each port. The second column shows the public agency that owns or runs the port.
| # | Port | 2025 TEUs | State | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Port of Los AngelesLos Angeles Harbor Department (City of Los Angeles) | 10.24 millionCalendar 2025 | CA | Busiest US container port; its harbor department is a self-supporting city department. |
| 2 | Port of Long BeachLong Beach Harbor Department (City of Long Beach) | 9,881,595Calendar 2025 | CA | Record year, up 2.4%; five of six terminals topped 1 million TEUs. Projects 20 million TEUs a year by 2050. |
| 3 | Port of New York and New JerseyPort Authority of New York and New Jersey (bi-state agency) | 8,897,531Calendar 2025 | NJ, NY | Busiest East Coast port. The Port Authority also runs the region's airports, bridges, tunnels and PATH. |
| 4 | Port of Savannah and Port of BrunswickGeorgia Ports Authority (state authority) | Nearly 5.7 millionCalendar 2025 | GA | Second-busiest year on record; carrying out a $4.5 billion self-funded plan that adds five container berths in Savannah. Brunswick handled 832,194 autos and heavy-equipment units. |
| 5 | Port HoustonPort of Houston Authority (political subdivision of Texas) | 4,303,345Calendar 2025 | TX | Record containers and 54.5 million short tons at its public terminals; completed Wharf 7 at Bayport, adding more than 500,000 TEUs of capacity. |
| 6 | Port of VirginiaVirginia Port Authority (state agency) | Nearly 3.24 millionCalendar 2025 | VA | Norfolk-area terminals owned by the state and run by its operating company, Virginia International Terminals. |
| 7 | Ports of Seattle and TacomaNorthwest Seaport Alliance (Port of Seattle and Port of Tacoma) | More than 3.15 millionCalendar 2025 | WA | Marine cargo partnership of two public port districts; each port also runs its own real estate and, in Seattle's case, the airport. |
| 8 | Port of CharlestonSouth Carolina Ports Authority (state agency) | More than 2.6 millionCalendar 2025 | SC | Approved a $294 million capital plan for fiscal 2026, including the North Charleston intermodal yard and a second Leatherman Terminal berth. |
| 9 | Port of OaklandPort of Oakland (independent department of the City of Oakland) | 2,253,976Calendar 2025 | CA | Top US port for refrigerated exports; also runs Oakland's airport and waterfront. |
| 10 | JAXPORTJacksonville Port Authority (independent agency) | 1,388,841Fiscal 2025 (Oct.-Sept.) | FL | Also moved about 506,000 vehicles; operating revenue was about $76 million in fiscal 2025. |
| 11 | Port EvergladesBroward County Port Everglades Department (county enterprise fund) | 1,167,552Fiscal 2025 (Oct.-Sept.) | FL | Record cargo, cruise and petroleum volumes in the same year; Master/Vision Plan calls for about $3.8 billion in capital projects. |
| 12 | PortMiamiMiami-Dade County Seaport Department | 1,115,058Fiscal 2025 (Oct.-Sept.) | FL | Eleventh straight year above 1 million TEUs; also a record 8.56 million cruise passengers. |
| 13 | Port of BaltimoreMaryland Port Administration (Maryland Department of Transportation) | 1,113,309Calendar 2025 | MD | Container record at Seagirt Marine Terminal despite the 2024 Key Bridge collapse; about 50 million tons of total cargo. |
| 14 | PhilaPortPhiladelphia Regional Port Authority (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) | 889,268Calendar 2025 | PA | Record year, up 6%; 64% of container imports were refrigerated. |
| 15 | Port of MobileAlabama Port Authority (state) | 629,837 in 2024; down about 17% in 2025Calendar 2024 | AL | Finished a $366 million harbor deepening to 50 feet in October 2025 and committed $131 million to a new container berth. |
| 16 | Port of WilmingtonNorth Carolina State Ports Authority | About 289,000Fiscal 2025 (July-June) | NC | Volumes fell in fiscal 2026 to nearly 200,000 TEUs; the authority is pursuing a harbor deepening to 47 feet. |
Sources: annual and fiscal-year cargo releases from each port authority, plus the American Journal of Transportation's Top 100 container ports for Virginia and the Northwest Seaport Alliance. Fiscal-year figures are marked. Port NOLA is not ranked because it had published only first-half 2025 totals (263,961 TEUs).
The biggest ports by tonnage
Containers aren't the whole story. Energy and bulk ports move far more weight:
- Port Houston ranks first in the nation by total waterborne tonnage in federal rankings, and its public terminals alone handled a record 54.5 million short tons in 2025.
- Port of South Louisiana, along the Mississippi River above New Orleans, ranks second in the federal tonnage rankings, driven by grain, petroleum and chemicals.
- Port of Corpus Christi moved 203.4 million tons in 2025, down 1.5%, with crude oil, refined products and liquefied natural gas as its leading cargoes.
- Port of Baltimore handled about 50 million tons in 2025, its second-best year, and leads all US ports in roll-on/roll-off farm and construction equipment.
How port authorities are organized
Who you sell to depends on how the port is governed:
- City harbor departments (Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland) are run by appointed harbor commissions and follow city procurement rules.
- County departments (PortMiami, Port Everglades) buy through county purchasing and county commission approval.
- State port authorities (Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania) have their own boards and procurement offices.
- Bi-state and special-purpose authorities (the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Port Houston, the Washington port districts) can levy taxes or issue bonds and run large capital programs.
At many ports, private terminal operators lease the docks and buy their own equipment, so a sale may involve both the authority and the operator.
Selling to port authorities
- Read the capital plan. Ports publish multi-year capital improvement plans and master plans that name upcoming berth, crane, rail and technology projects.
- Watch board agendas. Harbor commission and port board meetings approve contracts, so agendas show what's being bought and when.
- Track federal grants. Port Infrastructure Development Program awards and other federal grants fund equipment and infrastructure; see our government grant deadlines.
- Register as a vendor. Most port authorities run their own supplier portals in addition to city, county or state systems; see our state procurement portals.
- Reach the right departments. Engineering, maritime operations, IT and cybersecurity, security and police, environmental and procurement teams are the usual buyers.
How KSG helps
Kensington Sales Group's SDRs book meetings with public agencies across Federal, SLED, K-12 & Higher Ed, Healthcare, Tribal, Special Districts and Utilities, including port and transportation authorities. We find the engineering, operations, IT and procurement contacts at each port and time outreach to capital plans and board cycles. See how our B2G lead generation works.
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