Fewer Fuel Cargoes, a Late Peak Season, and Salt for the Great Lakes: U.S. Ocean Imports in October 2026

Bottom line: U.S. ocean imports weighed 49.2 million tonnes in October 2026, up 0.8% from September and 9.4% from October 2025. Fuel cargoes fell for a second month, while cargo shipped from China had its heaviest month since January 2025 and salt shipped from Canada reached the highest level in our data, in the first full month after the United States exempted road salt from its 50% duty on Canadian goods.

Desk: Claudio, U.S. shipments desk. Dataset: CargoFax U.S. bills of lading (ocean import shipments, CBP ACE manifests). Period: October 2026, compared with September 2026, October 2025 and the months since January 2025, when our series begins. Vintage: October 2026 data updated 2026-11-11; earlier months as published on 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

• The total held; the mix changed. Imports weighed 49.23 million tonnes in October 2026, up 0.8% from September and 9.4% from October 2025, on 1,918,394 shipment records (up 1.5% from September). Mineral fuels and oils fell 16.3% to 6.76 million tonnes, while everything else rose 4.1% to 42.47 million tonnes, 17.0% more than in October 2025.
• The peak season ran late. Cargo shipped from China weighed 11.69 million tonnes, up 8.2% from September and 23.0% from October 2025, its heaviest month since January 2025. MSC carried 5.74 million tonnes, 11.7% of all weight, its heaviest month and highest share in our data.
• Fuel fell across many tanker routes. Fuel loaded in Brazil fell from 801,518 tonnes in September to 135,068 tonnes, and none arrived from the United Arab Emirates. Cargo shipped from Venezuela fell for a third month, to 685,386 tonnes.
• Salt for winter. Cargo shipped from Canada rose 15.2% to 4.73 million tonnes. Bulk salt from Canada reached 593,436 tonnes, the most in any month since January 2025, after road salt was excluded from the 50% U.S. duty on Canadian goods on September 15, 2026.
• A new lane from Indonesia. Cargo shipped from Indonesia weighed 478,865 tonnes, its highest month since January 2025, including 122,915 tonnes of cement, a product our records did not show from Indonesia before July 2026.

The numbers

Over the three months to October, imports reached 149.92 million tonnes, up 9.0% on May to July and 8.3% on the same months of 2025. From January to October they totaled 464.17 million tonnes, still 2.9% below the same ten months of 2025.

Why did the peak season run into October?

Cargo shipped from China is the largest single part of U.S. ocean imports by weight, between 8.74 and 12.27 million tonnes a month in 2025. In early October, the National Retail Federation said the drawn-out peak shipping season appears to finally be ending and forecast October at 2.25 million TEU, up 8.5% from a year earlier, and November down 1%.

October did not look like an ending in our records. Cargo shipped from China weighed 11.69 million tonnes, up 8.2% from 10.81 million in September and 23.0% from 9.51 million in October 2025, its heaviest month since January 2025 (12.27 million).

China's share of all weight rose to 23.7% from 21.1% a year earlier, and over August to October it shipped 32.81 million tonnes, 14.0% more than in the same months of 2025. South Korea shipped 4.00 million tonnes and Vietnam 2.69 million, up 23.5% and 21.5% from October 2025.

Household goods led. Toys and sports goods (HS 95) rose for a fourth month in a row, from 398,558 tonnes in June to 631,161 tonnes, as did other textile articles such as bedding (HS 63), from 568,663 to 746,286 tonnes; plastics rose 7.1% from September to 3.02 million tonnes and furniture 9.6% to 2.58 million. In Descartes' September count, plastics were the largest China-origin category, followed by furniture and bedding, and toys and sporting goods.

Los Angeles received 5.86 million tonnes, almost unchanged from 5.88 million in September and 24.3% more than a year earlier. Long Beach received 4.84 million tonnes, down 15.8% from 5.75 million in September but 7.5% above October 2025.

The strain showed inland. On October 26, nearly 35,700 import containers were waiting for on-dock trains at the two ports, and Descartes reported that port transit delays increased at eight of the ten largest U.S. container ports in September. Long Beach's lower weight may reflect the timing of ship calls rather than weaker demand; the data does not show which.

MSC carried 5.74 million tonnes, 11.7% of all weight and 29.8% more than in October 2025 (4.42 million), its heaviest month and highest share in our data. CMA CGM carried 3.96 million tonnes (up 17.1% from October 2025), Maersk Line, part of A.P. Moller-Maersk (Nasdaq Copenhagen: MAERSK B), 3.87 million (up 12.7%), and ZIM (NYSE: ZIM) 2.08 million (up 6.0%); all eight of the largest container lines carried more than a year earlier.

Why did it keep coming? The Port of Los Angeles pointed to a window of lower tariffs versus the year earlier, the U.S. agreement with China that was due to expire this fall before it was extended, and cargo backlogs in China after two typhoons; C.H. Robinson said exporters pushed cargo out before the Golden Week factory closures. The carriers describe a price story. ZIM raised its 2026 guidance on strong demand and favorable freight-rate momentum, and Maersk said its profit jump came from higher prices rather than more cargo, with ocean volumes largely flat from a year earlier but U.S. economic activity strong, Reuters reported on November 5. On the U.S. lanes, our records show more cargo as well. We weigh cargo while ports and NRF count containers, so heavier goods can look stronger in tonnes than in boxes.

What the data shows: Container cargo did not slow on schedule in October: China had its heaviest month since January 2025, household goods kept building, and MSC carried its highest share of the weight in our data. Ports point to lower tariffs than a year earlier, the extended China agreement and typhoon backlogs; how much each mattered, and whether November falls as NRF forecast, is not yet known.

Why did fuel imports fall for a second month?

Mineral fuels and oils (HS 27: crude oil, refined products, coal and gas) are the heaviest group in U.S. ocean imports, 7.38 to 9.91 million tonnes a month in 2025. In 2026 they have been lighter: 72.04 million tonnes from January to October, 19.7% below the same months of 2025.

After rising to 9.28 million tonnes in August, fuel fell to 8.07 million in September and 6.76 million in October, down 16.3% from September and 22.3% from October 2025, the lowest since June (5.59 million) and 13.7% of all weight.

The drop came from many tanker routes rather than one supplier. Fuel loaded in Brazil fell from 801,518 tonnes in September to 135,068 tonnes, in Panama from 638,901 to 353,549 tonnes and in the Netherlands from 260,968 to 57,194 tonnes, and none arrived from the United Arab Emirates after 276,539 tonnes in September. Crude transferred between tankers off the U.S. Gulf Coast rose from 1,011,220 to 1,544,372 tonnes, and three crude tankers from Libya brought 218,554 tonnes.

Cargo shipped from Venezuela fell for a third month, to 685,386 tonnes from 781,881 in September and 1.19 million in July, though it was still almost double October 2025. Our last edition asked whether September's dip was timing or a turn; a third decline makes timing alone less likely.

The data does not show why fuel arrivals fell. Reuters reported in October that heavy crude was piling up in the Americas as freight costs stifled exports and U.S. refiners ran close to their limits, that Gulf Coast refiners had already bought as much as they could process, and that Washington had released more than 130 million barrels from its emergency reserve. These could reduce the need for imported cargoes, but we found no report tying October's arrivals to a single cause, and tanker arrivals are lumpy.

What the data shows: Fuel imports fell 16.3% from September to the lowest level since June, with lower arrivals from Brazil, Panama, the United Arab Emirates and Europe and a third monthly decline from Venezuela. Reuters describes refiners near their limits and a large emergency-reserve release; the data does not show which, if any, drove October's arrivals.

Why did salt from Canada reach its highest level?

Canada is the second-largest source of U.S. ocean imports by weight, mostly bulk cargo such as salt, stone, sand, gypsum, cement, fuels, grain and wood: 2.16 to 4.61 million tonnes a month in 2025. The United States put a 50% duty on a list of Canadian goods in August after trade talks broke down, under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930; changes that took effect on September 15 excluded road salts, needed in states facing harsher winter weather, and cement. Cargo shipped from Canada weighed 5.15 million tonnes in August, the most in our data, 4.11 million in September and 4.73 million in October, up 15.2% from September and 17.4% from October 2025.

Most of October's increase was salt. Bulk salt shipped from Canada weighed 593,436 tonnes, up 40.0% from 423,795 tonnes in September and above the previous high of 483,005 tonnes in August. Salt from Canada climbs each summer and autumn, likely as buyers stock up for winter; in 2025 it peaked at 379,113 tonnes in September.

Most of it was unladen at Great Lakes ports, led by Toledo, Ohio (148,014 tonnes), Duluth (93,060 tonnes) and Alpena, Michigan (79,747 tonnes).

It was loaded at Goderich (370,369 tonnes), Windsor (142,094 tonnes) and Quebec (80,973 tonnes). The timing fits the exemption, but our data cannot separate it from pre-winter stocking, and cement, also exempted, eased from 209,010 tonnes in September to 177,868 tonnes. Most of the rest of Canada's rise was stone, sand, gypsum and grain.

A second building material arrived on a new lane. Cargo shipped from Indonesia weighed 478,865 tonnes, its highest month since January 2025, including 122,915 tonnes of cement in four cargoes to Stockton, California; our records show no cement from Indonesia before July 2026. Indonesian press reported that cement exports to the United States would start in May 2026 and that one producer targeted 450,000 tonnes of special-type cement exports to the United States in 2026.

What the data shows: Salt shipped from Canada reached 593,436 tonnes in October, the most since our data begins, in the first full month after road salt left the 50% U.S. duty on Canadian goods. The timing fits the policy change, but autumn stocking lifts salt every year, and cement, also exempted, fell.

Verification notes

From the CargoFax anomaly register for October 2026 (22 entries: 6 explained, 16 contradicted, none pending) and this desk's own checks.

• Copper cathodes recorded 10 to 100 times too heavy (contradicted). One bulk carrier of about 40,000 tonnes deadweight brought copper cathodes from Dar es Salaam and Walvis Bay to New Orleans on October 14, but its bills add up to 754,722 tonnes; at 2 to 3 tonnes a bundle they come to about 36,000 tonnes. The weights of 63 bills loaded in Tanzania (380,085 tonnes) and 17 in Namibia (367,302 tonnes) are left out and the shipments still count, leaving Tanzania at 20,092 tonnes and Namibia at 19,856. Searches: LME cathode bundle weights, the vessel's deadweight, DRC copper shipments to the United States in 2026, and the same brands on the next voyage.
• Candy, shortbread and body wash recorded 1,000 times too heavy (contradicted). Three container bills of soft candy (Turkey) and shortbread (United Kingdom), and one of body wash (Turkey), listed weights 1,000 times their own summary rows; those weights (308,203 and 112,307 tonnes) are left out.
• Salt cargo filed twice (contradicted). One salt cargo of 30,087 tonnes, carried from Quebec to Toledo on a single laker arriving October 3, was filed under two bill numbers; both bills show the same vessel, arrival date, ports, parties and weight. The later re-filing is excluded, so the cargo counts once, and bulk salt from Canada stands at 593,436 tonnes, still above any earlier month (previous high 483,005 tonnes). Checks: the two bills' vessel, arrival, ports, quantity, weight and filing dates.
• Chapter-only codes (contradicted as trends). Since the HS classifier change of March 2026, some lines are coded only to the chapter: in October, 2,348,184 tonnes in chapter 27, 228,237 in chapter 39, 218,121 in chapter 84 and 136,875 in chapter 26. They stay in the totals but are coding artifacts, not trade changes, so we describe mineral fuels and oils by the whole chapter and do not split crude, coal or refined products.
• Explained, kept in the figures. Offshore transfers (1,564,705 tonnes) are crude moved between tankers in the U.S. Gulf, with no loading country. Indonesia, Algeria (300,538 tonnes) and Libya (218,555 tonnes) are ordinary bulk and tanker cargoes; hot-rolled steel (HS 7208, 217,960 tonnes) and copper slag from Japan (HS 2620, 124,837 tonnes) are real trade.
• Shipment records rose 25.5% from October 2025, far faster than weight (9.4%), so we do not treat them as a measure of volume.
• Product detail. HS codes here are partly estimated and the classifier changed in March 2026, so we make no product-level year-on-year comparisons; the chapter runs quoted are month to month within the new coding, and salt and cement are grouped by cargo description.

What to watch

• Mid-November 2026: the Port of Los Angeles publishes its October count. It expected about 900,000 TEU; our weight there held at 5.86 million tonnes.
• Early December 2026: NRF's Global Port Tracker reports October's actual TEU against its forecast of 2.25 million, and November against a forecast decline of 1%.
• Our December 2026 edition: November arrivals from China (11.69 million tonnes in October) and whether fuel recovers from 6.76 million tonnes.
• Great Lakes salt: whether bulk salt from Canada stays above 400,000 tonnes in November, before the lake shipping season closes.
• San Pedro Bay rail: whether the backlog of import containers waiting for trains, about 35,700 on October 26, clears.

Methodology and data notes

• Source: CargoFax U.S. import bills of lading (CBP ACE ocean manifests), as computed for cargofax.co/reports/united-states/. October 2026 data updated 2026-11-11; earlier months keep the 2026-10-18 vintage of the published pages. Monthly series begin January 2025, so "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.
• Lines above 200,000 tonnes, or above 5,000 tonnes outside bulk chapters, are excluded as recording errors, and repeated rows for the same bill, HS code and weight are counted once. Register exclusions for October 2026: the weights of 80 copper-cathode bills (747,388 tonnes), three candy and shortbread bills (308,203 tonnes) and one body-wash bill (112,307 tonnes) are left out while those shipments still count, and one duplicate salt bill (30,087 tonnes) is removed so that cargo counts once.
• Fuel by country of lading, salt, cement and loading ports come from the standardized records (us_imports, data updated 2026-11-11), which match the published October totals; their September values include a few late-arriving bills (chapter 27: 8,069,086 tonnes against 8,069,048 published). Salt is grouped by cargo description (lines naming salt in HS chapters 25 and 28), and cement likewise.
• Carrier names are shown as recorded on the bills; carriers that are also among the top importers are withheld. No importer or exporter names are used, and companies are named only from cited public reporting.
• Port, NRF and Descartes figures count containers (TEU) and use country of origin; they are context, not a reconciliation with our tonnes.
• Source search window: July 1 to November 30, 2026 (from April 1 for the Indonesian cement lane, which began in July). U.S. exports in this dataset are not used: bulk cargo was added to the source in January 2026.

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 NRF. Import Cargo’s Extended Peak Season Wrapping Up. 2026-10-08 archive
• Tier 2 Container News. US container imports hit record September high. 2026-10-09 archive
• Tier 2 FreightWaves. Backlog grows as 35,000 containers await rail service at LA–Long Beach. 2026-10-28 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 Gcaptain. Port Congestion Ties Up 12% of Global Global Container Shipping Capacity. 2026-10-02 archive
• Tier 2 hellenicshippingnews.com. ZIM Raises Full-Year 2026 Guidance. 2026-10-07 archive
• Tier 2 Baird Maritime / Work Boat World. Maersk shares fall despite third profit guidance raise in 2026. 2026-11-05 archive
• Tier 2 BOE Report. Americas have glut of heavy oil due to freight squeeze; Asia, Europe scramble for barrels. 2026-10-12 archive
• Tier 2 Khaleej Times. New US tariffs, exemptions take effect on Canadian goods weeks ahead of elections. 2026-09-15 archive
• Tier 2 kontan.co.id. Solusi Bangun Indonesia (SMCB) Buka Peluang Baru, Targetkan Ekspor 1 Juta Ton ke AS. 2026-05-23 archive
• Tier 2 www.jpnn.com. Hadirkan Fasilitas Ekspor di Tuban, SIG Perluas Ekspansi Global ke Pasar Amerika Serikat. 2026-06-12 archive