Bottom line: U.S. ocean imports weighed 48.9 million tonnes in September 2026, down 5.7% from August but up 9.6% from September 2025. Fuel cargoes fell the most. Cargo from China rose, and Venezuela has replaced the Persian Gulf as a source of U.S. fuel arrivals.
Source: CargoFax analysis of US import bills of lading (CBP ACE ocean manifests) via CargoFax; data updated 2026-10-18. Weight in metric tonnes.
Desk: Claudio, U.S. shipments desk. Dataset: CargoFax U.S. bills of lading (ocean import shipments, CBP ACE manifests). Period: September 2026, compared with August 2026, September 2025, Q3 2025 and January to September 2025. Vintage: data updated 2026-10-18. Coverage: ocean imports only, measured in tonnes and shipment records, not dollars. Country means where the cargo was loaded (shipped from), not where it was made.
Key findings
- Total weight eased, the quarter held up. Imports weighed 48.9 million tonnes in September 2026, down 5.7% from 51.8 million in August and up 9.6% from 44.6 million in September 2025. Q3 2026 came to 150.8 million tonnes, up 4.9% from Q3 2025. The year is still behind: January to September was 4.2% below the same months of 2025.
- Fuels led the decline. Mineral fuels and oils (HS 27) fell 13.1% from August to 8.07 million tonnes, 4.3% below September 2025. Everything else came to 40.8 million tonnes, down 4.1% from August but up 12.9% from a year earlier.
- The Pacific got busier. Cargo shipped from China weighed 10.8 million tonnes, 22.0% of the total, up 4.8% from August and 19.6% from September 2025. Long Beach received 5.75 million tonnes, up 38.2% from a year earlier, in the month the port reported its busiest month on record.
- Venezuela is now a steady supplier. Cargo shipped from Venezuela weighed 3.05 million tonnes in Q3 2026, compared with 0.11 million in Q3 2025. Iraq, which shipped 2.33 million tonnes from January to September 2025, has shipped almost nothing since March 2026 (14 tonnes in May) and nothing from June to September.
The numbers
| Metric (ocean imports, tonnes) | Sep 2026 | Aug 2026 | Change | Sep 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total weight | 48.86 million | 51.83 million | -5.7% | 44.58 million | +9.6% |
| Mineral fuels and oils (HS 27) | 8.07 million | 9.28 million | -13.1% | 8.44 million | -4.3% |
| Everything except HS 27 | 40.79 million | 42.55 million | -4.1% | 36.14 million | +12.9% |
| Shipped from China | 10.81 million | 10.32 million | +4.8% | 9.04 million | +19.6% |
| Shipped from Venezuela | 0.78 million | 1.08 million | -27.6% | 0.11 million | not meaningful (small base) |
| Shipped from Mexico | 1.73 million | 2.09 million | -17.1% | 2.50 million | -30.7% |
| Unladen at Long Beach | 5.75 million | 5.23 million | +9.9% | 4.16 million | +38.2% |
| Unladen at Los Angeles | 5.88 million | 5.70 million | +3.3% | 4.81 million | +22.3% |
| MSC share of weight | 10.9% | 10.6% | +0.3 points | 9.5% | +1.4 points |
| Shipment records | 1,889,147 | 1,887,197 | +0.1% | 1,523,059 | +24.0% (see notes) |
Q3 2026 totaled 150.76 million tonnes, up 13.4% from Q2 2026 (132.95 million) and 4.9% from Q3 2025 (143.74 million). January to September 2026 totaled 414.9 million tonnes, 4.2% below the same nine months of 2025 (432.9 million).
Source: CargoFax analysis of US import bills of lading (CBP ACE ocean manifests) via CargoFax; data updated 2026-10-18. Weight in metric tonnes.
Table view
| Imports | |
|---|---|
| Jan 2025 | 50.60M t |
| Feb 2025 | 43.63M t |
| Mar 2025 | 50.04M t |
| Apr 2025 | 49.96M t |
| May 2025 | 46.30M t |
| Jun 2025 | 48.68M t |
| Jul 2025 | 50.29M t |
| Aug 2025 | 48.88M t |
| Sep 2025 | 44.58M t |
| Oct 2025 | 44.98M t |
| Nov 2025 | 43.98M t |
| Dec 2025 | 44.31M t |
| Jan 2026 | 44.00M t |
| Feb 2026 | 37.73M t |
| Mar 2026 | 49.51M t |
| Apr 2026 | 45.54M t |
| May 2026 | 46.76M t |
| Jun 2026 | 40.65M t |
| Jul 2026 | 50.07M t |
| Aug 2026 | 51.83M t |
| Sep 2026 | 48.86M t |
Source: CargoFax analysis of US import bills of lading (CBP ACE ocean manifests) via CargoFax; data updated 2026-10-18. Weight in metric tonnes.
Table view
| 2026 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | 44.00M t | 50.60M t |
| Feb | 37.73M t | 43.63M t |
| Mar | 49.51M t | 50.04M t |
| Apr | 45.54M t | 49.96M t |
| May | 46.76M t | 46.30M t |
| Jun | 40.65M t | 48.68M t |
| Jul | 50.07M t | 50.29M t |
| Aug | 51.83M t | 48.88M t |
| Sep | 48.86M t | 44.58M t |
Why did U.S. fuel imports fall in September 2026?
Mineral fuels (crude oil, refined products, coal, and gas) are the heaviest thing the United States brings in by sea. In 2025 they weighed 7.4 to 9.9 million tonnes a month, between a sixth and a fifth of all ocean imports.
2026 has been lighter. From January to September 2026, HS 27 imports weighed 65.3 million tonnes, down 19.4% from 81.0 million in the same months of 2025. The quarter fell less than the year: Q3 2026 came to 25.2 million tonnes, down 8.6% from Q3 2025.
Source: CargoFax analysis of U.S. import bills of lading (CBP ACE ocean manifests); data updated 2026-10-18. Weight in metric tonnes, country of lading (shipped from).
Table view
| 2026 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | 7.44M t | 9.91M t |
| Feb | 6.36M t | 7.38M t |
| Mar | 7.89M t | 8.99M t |
| Apr | 6.63M t | 9.38M t |
| May | 6.22M t | 8.55M t |
| Jun | 5.59M t | 9.22M t |
| Jul | 7.80M t | 9.58M t |
| Aug | 9.28M t | 9.52M t |
| Sep | 8.07M t | 8.44M t |
September broke a two-month climb. HS 27 went from 5.59 million tonnes in June to 7.80 million in July and 9.28 million in August, then fell 13.1% to 8.07 million in September, 16.5% of all weight. That one chapter accounts for 1.21 million of the 2.97 million tonnes the total lost from August, the largest single part of the drop. Tanker lanes moved with it: the Gulf of Mexico to Port Arthur, Texas route fell 34.5% from August to 413,000 tonnes, and Houston received 9.9% less weight.
The data does not show why September was lighter. There are a few possibilities: (a) the autumn refinery maintenance season, when refiners usually buy less crude; (b) the timing of individual tanker arrivals, which can move a monthly total by hundreds of thousands of tonnes; (c) slower loadings in Venezuela in August (see below). We did not find reporting that ties the September dip to a single cause.
What the data shows: Fuel imports fell 13.1% from August and 4.3% from September 2025, the largest single part of the month's decline. Non-fuel cargo was 12.9% above a year earlier. The cause of the September fuel dip is not established.
Where are U.S. fuel imports coming from now?
The larger change in fuels is not the level but the map. Three suppliers moved in different directions.
Venezuela came back. From January to April 2025, cargo shipped from Venezuela ran at 256,000 to 446,000 tonnes a month; from June to August 2025 it was close to zero. In 2026 it climbed, with a dip in April:
- January 2026: 301,000 tonnes
- March 2026: 732,000 tonnes
- April 2026: 493,000 tonnes
- June 2026: 845,000 tonnes
- July 2026: 1.19 million tonnes (the highest month since January 2025, the start of our data)
- August 2026: 1.08 million tonnes
- September 2026: 782,000 tonnes
From January to September 2026, Venezuela shipped 6.75 million tonnes to U.S. ports, compared with 1.77 million in the same months of 2025. Almost all of it is fuel: close to nine-tenths of September's tonnage was HS 27. Reuters reported that Venezuelan oil has been under Washington's supervision since U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro in January, and that a supply pact signed in January with interim President Delcy Rodríguez allowed Venezuelan oil to return to the U.S., with U.S.-bound exports reaching about 786,000 barrels a day in July, the highest since early 2019. That matches the July peak in our arrivals.
The September dip needs care. Reuters shipping data shows U.S.-bound loadings rising to 629,000 barrels a day in September from 553,000 in August, while trading houses demanded bigger discounts as freight costs rose. Our records count cargo when it arrives in the United States; Reuters counts it when it leaves Venezuela. A slow August of loadings may show up as a slow September of arrivals, so the two series should not be expected to match month by month.
The Gulf went quiet. Cargo shipped from Iraq weighed 2.33 million tonnes from January to September 2025. In 2026 it fell to under 1,000 tonnes in March and again in April, then to 14 tonnes in May, and there have been no recorded ocean imports shipped from Iraq from June through September. Shafaq News, citing EIA data, linked the halt to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz on February 28, 2026, through which Iraq previously routed roughly 90% of its crude, and reported that U.S. imports of Iraqi crude resumed at 6,000 barrels per day after seven consecutive weeks at zero in mid-August.
Source: CargoFax analysis of U.S. import bills of lading (CBP ACE ocean manifests); data updated 2026-10-18. Weight in metric tonnes, country of lading (shipped from).
Table view
| Venezuela | Iraq | |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 2025 | 403,630 t | 375 t |
| Feb 2025 | 400,443 t | 144,352 t |
| Mar 2025 | 446,293 t | 202,728 t |
| Apr 2025 | 256,053 t | 38,825 t |
| May 2025 | 147,576 t | 272,841 t |
| Jun 2025 | 1,861 t | 624,363 t |
| Jul 2025 | 2,958 t | 436,788 t |
| Aug 2025 | 2,209 t | 464,835 t |
| Sep 2025 | 108,210 t | 143,259 t |
| Oct 2025 | 346,690 t | 96,672 t |
| Nov 2025 | 125,723 t | 197 t |
| Dec 2025 | 135,083 t | 266,445 t |
| Jan 2026 | 300,567 t | 320,461 t |
| Feb 2026 | 690,995 t | 382,976 t |
| Mar 2026 | 732,098 t | 660 t |
| Apr 2026 | 493,099 t | 703 t |
| May 2026 | 641,222 t | 14 t |
| Jun 2026 | 844,698 t | 0 t |
| Jul 2026 | 1.19M t | 0 t |
| Aug 2026 | 1.08M t | 0 t |
| Sep 2026 | 781,881 t | 0 t |
Mexico sent less. Cargo shipped from Mexico weighed 1.73 million tonnes in September 2026, down 30.7% from September 2025. Fuels shipped from Mexico were about 769,000 tonnes, down from about 1.42 million a year earlier. Reuters reported (in Spanish) that Pemex crude exports fell 45% year on year in August to 275,737 barrels a day as more crude went to Mexican refineries.
Source: CargoFax analysis of U.S. import bills of lading (CBP ACE ocean manifests); data updated 2026-10-18. Weight in metric tonnes, country of lading (shipped from). HS 27 split from the standardized pipeline records.
Table view
| Sep 2026 | Sep 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| All cargo | 1.73M t | 2.50M t |
| Mineral fuels (HS 27) | 769,000 t | 1.42M t |
The nuance: official Census figures, which count country of origin, still show some Iraqi imports, $72 million in July and $87 million in August 2026, against $723 million in August 2025 (CargoFax Census desk, data through August 2026). Our lading data shows zero. Both say the flow has shrunk sharply; the gap likely reflects Iraqi crude loaded somewhere other than Iraq, which bills of lading record under the loading country.
What the data shows: Venezuela went from near zero in mid-2025 to about 1 million tonnes a month by July 2026, while Iraq dropped out and Mexico sent less. Public reporting links these to the January 2026 Venezuela pact, the Hormuz closure, and Mexico's refining push. The September dip from Venezuela may be timing rather than a turn.
Is the Pacific container trade still strong?
China is the largest single source of U.S. ocean imports by weight. In 2025, cargo shipped from China ran at 27.1 to 31.9 million tonnes a quarter.
Q3 2026 was the heaviest quarter since the start of 2025. Cargo shipped from China came to 31.88 million tonnes, up 7.4% from Q3 2025 (29.67 million) and just under the 31.92 million of Q1 2025, the highest quarter in our data. By quarter in 2026: 26.8 million in Q1, 28.2 million in Q2, 31.9 million in Q3. September alone was 10.8 million tonnes, 22.0% of all weight, up from 20.3% in September 2025.
The arrivals concentrated in San Pedro Bay. Long Beach and Los Angeles together received 11.6 million tonnes in September, up 6.4% from August and 29.7% from September 2025. The Port of Long Beach reported a record 997,177 TEU in September, with imports up 31.3%; Los Angeles reported loaded imports of 545,696 TEU, up 19%. Our weights point the same way: Long Beach up 38.2%, Los Angeles up 22.3%. Among lanes, Ningbo to Long Beach reached 596,000 tonnes, up 22.2% from August and 78.0% from September 2025.
Source: CargoFax analysis of U.S. import bills of lading (CBP ACE ocean manifests); data updated 2026-10-18. Weight in metric tonnes, country of lading (shipped from).
Table view
| Long Beach + Los Angeles | Long Beach | Los Angeles | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2025 | 11.30M t | 5.74M t | 5.56M t |
| Feb 2025 | 9.61M t | 4.75M t | 4.86M t |
| Mar 2025 | 9.31M t | 4.86M t | 4.44M t |
| Apr 2025 | 10.14M t | 5.51M t | 4.63M t |
| May 2025 | 9.58M t | 4.92M t | 4.66M t |
| Jun 2025 | 11.55M t | 6.17M t | 5.38M t |
| Jul 2025 | 11.92M t | 5.85M t | 6.07M t |
| Aug 2025 | 10.81M t | 5.20M t | 5.62M t |
| Sep 2025 | 8.97M t | 4.16M t | 4.81M t |
| Oct 2025 | 9.22M t | 4.50M t | 4.72M t |
| Nov 2025 | 8.50M t | 4.08M t | 4.43M t |
| Dec 2025 | 9.33M t | 4.60M t | 4.73M t |
| Jan 2026 | 8.75M t | 4.24M t | 4.51M t |
| Feb 2026 | 7.57M t | 3.51M t | 4.07M t |
| Mar 2026 | 8.62M t | 4.16M t | 4.45M t |
| Apr 2026 | 9.64M t | 4.24M t | 5.40M t |
| May 2026 | 9.06M t | 4.36M t | 4.70M t |
| Jun 2026 | 9.19M t | 4.07M t | 5.13M t |
| Jul 2026 | 11.34M t | 5.89M t | 5.44M t |
| Aug 2026 | 10.93M t | 5.23M t | 5.70M t |
| Sep 2026 | 11.63M t | 5.75M t | 5.88M t |
Shipping lines shared the gain unevenly. MSC carried 10.9% of all weight, up from 9.5% in September 2025, with its tonnage up 26.3%. ONE rose to 6.0% from 5.0%. Maersk carried 7.0%, down from 7.9%, and its tonnage fell 11.5% from August.
Port leaders gave several reasons. The Port of Los Angeles pointed to a window of lower tariffs versus the year earlier, and to concern that the U.S. agreement with China was due to expire this fall before it was extended last month. Long Beach's chief executive cited high diesel costs, Panama Canal access restrictions and the prospect of a new U.S.-China trade agreement. The NRF said peak season started early and was stretched out through the summer and early fall.
The early signal. Official Census values for China run through August 2026: $27.1 billion, up 6.9% from $25.4 billion in August 2025 (CargoFax Census desk). Our August weight from China was up 0.8% on the year; September was up 19.6%. That suggests, but does not prove, that the September Census figure for China will also come in above September 2025. NRF's Global Port Tracker likewise projected September at 2.28 million TEU, up 8.2% year over year. Weight and dollars do not move one for one, and our data counts where cargo was loaded, not where it was made.
What the data shows: Cargo shipped from China had its heaviest quarter since early 2025, and Long Beach received more than a third more weight than a year earlier. Ports cite lower tariffs, the extended China agreement, and routing away from Panama and Suez. Whether the strength lasts past the peak season is open.
Verification notes
- Crude coded as coal. Since March 2026 the lines coded HS 2701 (coal) are mostly crude oil: about 88% of that tonnage is crude oil, per the CargoFax anomaly register, so the apparent coal surge (1.28 million tonnes in September, against 141,000 a year earlier) is a coding artifact, not a coal story. The same miscoding makes crude petroleum (HS 2709) look 58.2% lower than a year earlier. Since early 2026 a chapter-only HS 27 code (2.14 million tonnes in September, none in 2025) has appeared in the records, so product codes within chapter 27 are not comparable across years. We use the chapter 27 total for fuel and crude, and do not quote HS 2701 or HS 2709 on their own.
- Manufactured goods by product. Vehicles and parts (HS 87, +81.6%), furniture (HS 94, +90.1%) and electrical equipment (HS 85, +88.1%) all show large year-on-year gains. HS codes in this dataset are partly estimated and the coding changed in 2026; we did not build stories on them.
- Small baselines. Iron and steel ingots (HS 7206) rose from 30,890 to 325,140 tonnes from August, and iron ore (HS 2601) from 314 to 90,630 tonnes. These are likely a few bulk cargoes.
- Shipment records. This edition counts repeated rows once (see Methodology). Earlier versions showed records jumping to about 2.2 million a month from March 2026; that jump was mostly repeated rows. Counted once, 2026 runs at 1.36 to 1.89 million records a month, in line with 2025 (1.35 to 2.04 million). September's 1,889,147 is 24.0% above September 2025, faster than weight (+9.6%), so read the record count with care.
- Venezuela's year-on-year change is from a base near zero (108,000 tonnes in September 2025), so we use multi-month comparisons instead of a percentage.
- Turkey rose 16.1% from August to 987,466 tonnes, its second-heaviest month since January 2025 after March 2026 (1.10 million). An earlier version showed 1.26 million; the difference was container weights recorded 1,000 times too high, now removed (see Methodology).
- Knitted apparel (HS 61) rose for a fifth month to 536,941 tonnes, the highest since January 2025, but the step from June to July (354,409 to 465,480 tonnes) may partly reflect coding.
What to watch
- Early November 2026: Census releases September official trade. Check whether China and Venezuela values confirm the shipment signal.
- October arrivals: whether Venezuelan tonnage recovers toward 1 million tonnes, given Reuters reports of higher freight costs and discount demands.
- Strait of Hormuz: a sustained reopening should bring Iraqi cargoes back into U.S. lading data.
- Peak season's end: NRF forecasts November at 2.0 million TEU, down 1%. Watch whether San Pedro Bay weight slips from its 11.6 million tonne level.
Methodology and data notes
- Source: CargoFax U.S. import bills of lading (CBP ACE ocean manifests), as computed for cargofax.co/reports/united-states/ (data updated 2026-10-18). Monthly series begin January 2025; "highest since January 2025" means the highest in our data, not an all-time record.
- Measures are weight (metric tonnes) and shipment records. Dollar values are not published for this dataset.
- Country is the country of lading ("shipped from"), not origin. Ocean freight only; air and land are not covered.
- Lines above 200,000 tonnes, or above 5,000 tonnes outside bulk chapters, are treated as recording errors and excluded.
- Repeated rows are counted once. When the same bill of lading appears more than once in a month with the same HS code and weight (master and house bills, or one row per container carrying the bill total), only one row is kept, in every month. This lowered shipment counts and weights compared with earlier versions of this edition (September 2026 was first published at 50.4 million tonnes and 2,348,540 records).
- Implausible container weights are now blanked at the source. The feed sometimes records a container's weight 1,000 times too high; the rule above caught most of these, and the pipeline now also blanks 29 lines listed in the CargoFax anomaly register, including two vegetable-oil (HS 1515) bills of about 138,000 tonnes each in September. September weight fell from 49.1 to 48.9 million tonnes as a result; shipment counts did not change.
- Fuel-by-country splits (Venezuela, Mexico) come from the standardized pipeline records (us_imports), which reconcile to the published HS 27 totals.
- Carrier names are shown as recorded (MSC, ONE and Maersk here); carriers that are also among the top importers are withheld in the underlying data and are not named. No importer names are used.
- Census figures (values by country of origin, through August 2026) come from the CargoFax Census desk and are cited only as a cross-check.
- U.S. exports in this dataset are not used: bulk cargo was added to the source in January 2026, so comparisons are not meaningful yet.
Sources
Every link on this page passed the verification gate (live article, date in window, quote found, archived). Tier 1: Bloomberg, WSJ, Reuters, FT. Tier 2: other highly relevant sources (trade press, government, company releases, local press).
Tier 1
No Tier 1 source on this page.
Tier 2
- Tier 2 GBM Media. Exportaciones petroleras de Venezuela cayeron a 1,08 millones de barriles diarios en septiembre: datos. 2026-10-01 archive
- Tier 2 BOE Report. Venezuela’s oil exports fell slightly in July, cargoes to US rose. 2026-08-03 archive
- Tier 2 Shafaq News. US imports 6K bpd of Iraqi crude after seven-week gap. 2026-08-23 archive
- Tier 2 GBM Media. Exportaciones de crudo de Pemex caen un 45% en agosto, sube producción de gasolinas y diésel. 2026-09-30 archive
- Tier 2 American Journal of Transportation. Port of Long Beach Breaks all-time cargo record in September. 2026-10-16 archive
- Tier 2 FreightWaves. 1 million boxes set new Los Angeles port record. 2026-10-12 archive
- Tier 2 The Maritime Executive. Port of Los Angeles Has Best Month Ever, Capping Four-Month Surge in TEUs. 2026-10-09 archive
- Tier 2 FreightWaves. New Long Beach record as volume nears 1M containers. 2026-10-16 archive
- Tier 2 NRF. Import Cargo’s Extended Peak Season Wrapping Up. 2026-10-08 archive