On a typical day in Fiscal Year 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processed 89,458 truck, rail, and sea containers entering the United States. In 2021, the nine biggest ports in the country handled a record 50.5 million shipping containers, measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), which is an increase of 16% over 2020.
To calculate the average number of shipping containers entering the U.S. daily, we can divide the total number of containers handled in 2021 by the number of days in the year:
50,500,000 TEUs365 days≈138,356 TEUs per day
However, this figure includes both import and export containers. In 2021, 14.6 million containers left the biggest U.S. ports empty. To estimate the number of import containers entering the U.S. daily, we can subtract the empty containers from the total containers and divide by the number of days in the year:
50,500,000 TEUs−14,600,000 TEUs/365 days≈98,356 TEUs per day
It is important to note that these figures are estimates and may not be entirely accurate, as they are based on data from the nine largest ports in the U.S. and do not account for all ports in the country. Additionally, the number of containers entering the U.S. can vary daily due to factors such as seasonal demand, global trade fluctuations, and supply chain disruptions.
