b'2American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comUncertainty principle:TOP 20 NORTH AMERICAN The only certainty isCONTAINER PORTS 2026uncertainty in 2026For better or for worse, prospects of North Amer-ican container ports are married to a number of keygeo-politicalandeconomictrends,notonly for 2026 but for years into the future. By George Lauriat, AJOTU ncertaintyP rinciPle Steven Vickers, president of Forthemostpart,TheSteveVickersandAssoci-TopTwentyNorthAmeri- ates, a Hong Kong-based risk canContainerPorts,postedanalysiscompany,describes strongcontainerthroughputthe global protectionist trend figures in 2025. As the Port ofas stockade economics.Los Angeles Executive Direc- Vickers, a longtime observer tor Gene Seroka of the Port ofof the Asian business and polit-Los Angeles, North Americasicaltrends,recentlyopened largest container port, said athisJan19 th SVAnewsletter amediabriefinginDecem- onStrategicRisktoAsia ber, Even with all the tradein2026,stating,Tectonic uncertainty, well finish 2025(UNCERTAINTYcontin-north of 10 million TEUs, put- ued on page 4)ting this year firmly in our top three of all time.Of course, the operative word in Serokas assessment of2025,wasuncertainty. And the truth is that for better or worse the prospects North Americas container ports inRanked #1 Most2026 is married to a number of geo-political and economic trends, which underscore theProductive Port uncertaintyfactornot only for the North American containerportsbutglobal trade as a whole. th in North AmericaThe National Retail Feder-ation (NRF) in their January 9release wrote, Import volume at the nations major containerTwo Years in a ports is forecast to see its first month-over-month gain in six monthsduringJanuarybutisRowexpected to remain down year over year until spring, based ondatafromtheirGlobal PortTrackerassembledby the NRF and Hackett Associ- This recognition reects the dedication of ates. ThedatafromtheNRFeveryone who keeps the port movingreport noted that the first half of2025totaled12.53mil- from the men and women on the front lines lion TEU, up 3.7% year overat PhilaPorts Packer Avenue Marine year.Andprojectsthefull year [2025] is forecast at 25.4Terminal to our carriers, logistics teams,million TEU, down 0.4% fromand partners across the region.25.5millionTEUin2024. [Editors note: These numbers arelargelyinlinewithpro- Thank you to our entire port communityjected numbers in theAJOTsfor helping Philadelphia lead the wayThe Top Twenty North Amer- once again.icanContainerchartderived largelyfromportauthorities.] BenHackett,Hackett Associ-atesfoundernoted,Follow-ing chronic uncertainty from increasedUStariffsin2025, the impact on cargo imports in 2026 is likely to still be affected by trade policy. Hackett added,Ship Philly First.As2026begins,weseea world increasingly focused on protectingdomesticindustrieswww.philaport.comand addressing perceived trade imbalancesThisapproach has raised questions about the future of free trade and interna- 1tional economic cooperation. According to the 2024 Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) released by the World Bank Group and S&P Global Market Intelligence.2026: S tockadee conomicS And international coop-eration and free trade might be hard to come by in 2026.'