Imagine you're a supply chain manager for a major corporation, urgently needing to ship Asian-manufactured goods to the US East Coast. In the past, West Coast ports would have been your automatic choice—they're geographically closer to Asia and seemingly faster. Yet today, you find yourself hesitating, even considering the longer route through East Coast ports. What's driving this surprising shift? The competitive landscape between US East and West Coast ports is undergoing a profound transformation.
The Historical Dominance of West Coast Ports
For decades, as American companies increasingly turned to Asian suppliers to meet domestic demand, West Coast ports became the primary gateway connecting Asia to the US. Los Angeles and Long Beach ports handled 34.8% of all US maritime imports in 2021, serving as the epicenter of import congestion. However, by 2022, congestion issues persisted, compounded by looming labor disputes—particularly around automation—that threatened to further reduce operational efficiency. Recent strikes in South Korea serve as a stark reminder of how labor disputes can disrupt port operations.
The East Coast's Rising Share
Interestingly, the trend of Asian imports shifting toward East Coast ports began before the pandemic. In 2019, East Coast ports processed 40.9% of Asian imports, up from just 35.7% in 2015. While this trend temporarily reversed in 2020 (with East Coast share dropping to 38.8% in Q1 2021), it rebounded quickly, reaching 45.5% by Q1 2022.
At first glance, this seems counterintuitive. Shipping from Asia to the East Coast requires traversing the Panama Canal, adding both distance and transit time compared to direct unloading at Los Angeles or Oakland. So what's driving this change?
Key Factors Driving the Shift
Infrastructure Improvements: The 2016 expansion of the Panama Canal, allowing passage of larger vessels, significantly enhanced East Coast ports' competitiveness. Ongoing expansions of container facilities—including port dredging and bridge elevation projects—have substantially increased handling capacity.
Operational Efficiency: While West Coast ports lead in throughput volume, World Bank port efficiency rankings consistently place East Coast ports higher. In 2021, all major East Coast ports except Savannah ranked above their West Coast counterparts. The assessment methodology tracked vessel and container movements, revealing that container handling consumes about 60% of total port time—a particular challenge for West Coast ports that handle most ultra-large container ships due to Panama Canal restrictions.
Additional Efficiency Differences: Other factors include more intense competition among East Coast ports, varying inland transport service efficiencies, different operational models, and equipment/driver availability disparities.
The Pandemic's Accelerating Effect
The pandemic dramatically accelerated these trends. As consumer goods spending surged and supply chains strained, shipping times ballooned from 60 days (2020 average) to 91 days (2021 average). This congestion made East Coast ports—despite their longer sea routes—increasingly competitive on total delivery time. By 2021, the West Coast's share of Asian imports dropped to 58.3% from 59.4% in 2020, while East Coast ports saw 22.6 percentage points higher year-over-year growth rates.
Time differentials tell the story clearly: while East Coast-bound shipments took 16.1 days longer than West Coast routes in 2019, this gap shrunk to 8.4 days in 2021 and just 3.2 days in early 2022. For eastern market destinations, the West Coast's time advantage deteriorated by 47.8% in 2021, with East Coast routes occasionally becoming faster overall despite longer sailing distances.
Looking Ahead: A New Equilibrium?
This doesn't signal the end for West Coast ports. Their massive capacity, geographic advantage for Asian trade, and extensive inland networks remain formidable assets. East Coast ports face their own limitations—their capacity is distributed across numerous smaller ports, increasing carriers' operational complexity and costs.
The current shift reflects both external factors (pandemic disruptions, trade tensions) and internal supply chain dynamics (congestion, infrastructure improvements, efficiency differences). As congestion patterns evolve, the industry may reach a new equilibrium where import structures stabilize—provided East Coast ports can manage potential congestion from increased volumes without disrupting imports from Europe, Africa, and South America.