Posted on April 23, 2026
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) posted a throughput of 8,897,531 TEUs — a very good year by most measures, and an exceptional year considering the geo-political and economic headwinds.
On a deeper dive into the numbers, PANYNJ’s loaded TEUs were up nearly 3% over 2024 at 5,995,798 TEUs, edging out the Port of Long Beach (5,920,671) for second place in loaded TEUs behind the Port of Los Angeles. As Bethann Rooney, Port Director for PANYNJ explained, “All things considered…last year was a good year. We continue to grow year over year on our overall volume. We continue to grow in laden imports, and we continue to grow in laden exports. The growth of the exports was more significant last year than we have seen.”
The reasons for the export growth were complex, immersed in a fog of tariffs, which covers nearly, but not completely, everything.
“So, our economists call it the effective tariff rate [which] is lower than what you see as the published tariff rates, because there’s all sorts of, I’ll call it, fine print on what gets the published tariff rate versus what doesn’t get the published tariff rate. So, if I look again at last year’s exports, we had a notable increase in vehicles. We had a notable increase in wastepaper, which is interesting because the wastepaper, like all the Amazon boxes, for example, they get recycled, shipped out, and they come back as the next Amazon box. We also had a most notable increase in food products exported [along with] iron and steel.” And there were surprises in the numbers, as Rooney points out. The Port exported 32,000 TEUs of tramway or railway stock and traffic signals compared to 5,000 TEUs in 2024.
Equally the mix of countries for which the exported goods were destined, reflects a changing trade pattern for the US, with UAE, Singapore, Thailand, Belgium and Turkey the main recipients with a notable but expected decrease in exports to mainland China.
Shippers: Tacking and Tactics
Ever since the COVID period, shippers and BCOs (Beneficial Cargo Owners) have learned to tack quickly when the trade winds shift and to develop new strategies to keep ahead of potential supply chain problems. To a degree this adaptation by shippers and carriers was partly behind the results of 2025.
When asked what main factors were driving the Port’s strong showing in 2025, Beth Rooney gave a nuanced answer to the question of what happened in ’25 and what is happening now. “Both in terms of ‘25 and still with ‘26, the years are overshadowed with a lot of uncertainty and a lot of behavior on the part of the shippers…racing against the clock… And in the early parts of 2025, we had shippers that were front-loading in anticipation of tariff implementation… And then tariffs go into effect. Then they are challenged with Supreme Court [decision which ruled 6-3 against the President using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs] and [now] there is a bit of two different things we’re hearing….”
In a sense it is a little like an economic rip tide with global trade being driven simultaneously in contrary directions by abnormal geo-political events. And as Rooney points out, “One is, again, front loading because the tariffs are down at the moment under the 180-day program, but the 301 considerations are out now for public comment under the USTR, and therefore there’s a period of time — there’s a window perhaps — where there will be lower tariffs. Because if the USTR process is successful, [for] some countries, some commodities, the tariffs will go again beyond what the 15% is right now…”
And as Rooney says there are other factors at play, beginning with the war in Iran [at this writing negotiations are underway between the US and Iran to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz but no agreement is in hand] and the rise in petroleum prices and the inevitable accompanying fuel surcharges applied by ocean carriers and truckers will add to the cost of freight movements. These additional costs to the supply chain will add to the overall costs to goods such as fertilizer for agricultural products and petrochemical products and for thousands of other goods. And while the pass through of tariffs in 2025 weren’t as impactful as anticipated by many economists, the new round of costs is beginning to hit home. Still how much impact these hikes will have on demand for goods and the containership movements to deliver them through ports, like New York/New Jersey, is an open question.
And even during this period of a seemingly endless string of disruptions, it is clear that in the future the Port of New York/New Jersey will need the additional terminal capacity and greater ability to shift more containers inland as the port carries on in its role as the East Coast’s largest gateway.
Impact of the Bayonne Bridge Project
One of the most visible and effective examples of addressing port infrastructure challenges was the raising of the Bayonne Bridge project. The raising of the bridge was part of the overall effort to be ready for the next generation of larger container ships that was already in the early phases of being added to the global containership fleet.
PANYNJ was aware that the bridge needed to be raised as nothing larger than a 9,000 TEU could go under the bridge. Larger vessels had to call at the Bayonne terminal (at that time called Global Container Terminal, now Port Liberty Bayonne). As Rooney said of the expected surge in ship sizes, “We knew that with the timing of the completion of the Panama Canal expansion, the timing of the completion of our 50-foot deepening project, and the raising of the Bayonne Bridge, which all happened within a short period of each other, that the Port would be ready for larger ships.”
Of course, the arrival of “big ships” didn’t happen overnight. “We knew when that capacity across the ecosystem was confirmed that the ocean carriers would begin to phase in the larger vessels. We knew that it wasn’t going to be an onslaught, open up the valve and all of a sudden there’s a 10,000 TEU ship on your doorstep.”
But the ocean carriers have “done exactly that in terms of phasing it.” And in 2025, “22% of the container vessels that called the Port of New York and New Jersey were in the 13,000 to 13,999 range. So, that’s the largest share… the workhorse of vessels calling the Port of New York and New Jersey is the 13,000 TEU class….and we’re the first port of call 76% of the time when those vessels arrive. We discharge on average about 65% of the vessel’s capacity and then the rest goes down the coast, usually two other ports that it calls on the East Coast,” Rooney said of the shift in vessel sizes.
Although the Bayonne Bridge might be the most public of the port’s infrastructure improvements, considerable work is underway and planned as part of the ongoing Master Plan (see box on page 2). And as Rooney points out, it has to be a collaborative effort to work, “We’re not doing this by ourselves. We can build all this big infrastructure, which is what the Port Authority is very good at, but if our terminal operators were not investing in additional capacity and additional infrastructure themselves with newer, larger cranes, it would all be for naught. Adding, so, the coordination that happens across the supply chain is important. And I think it’s notable that now, … the new leases that we’ve negotiated … unlocks new capacity and the terminal operators will be investing heavily in additional capacity.” And outside the terminal gates there is also work ahead to help deal with the anticipated increases in volumes, as Rooney points out, “And at the same time, we’re working on additional capacity outside the gate. So, we are underway in the design of our 55-foot channel that would be deeper and wider. We are underway with a complete rework of the main roadway entrance on the north side of the port. The Port Street Corridor Improvement project, which is well underway right now. [And] we’ve got additional rail capacity and fluidity with the southbound connector in design.
In 2026, a period of uncertainty — there is a certainty: PANYNJ is moving ahead with projects, planning and commitments that will underwrite the port’s capabilities to handle the future.
