Port Houston posts record 2025 cargo and container volumes, even as vessel arrivals declined

Record volumes at public terminals

Port Houston reported its strongest year on record in 2025, with total cargo across its public terminals reaching 54,491,066 short tons. The figure represented a 3% increase from 2024, extending a multi-year run of growth at the region’s primary public container and breakbulk facilities.

Container activity also set a new high. The port’s public terminals handled 4,303,345 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2025, a 4% increase from the prior year. The annual result followed a record 2024, when public-terminal container volumes exceeded 4.1 million TEUs.

Exports led growth, while imports rose modestly

The port’s 2025 container gains were driven more by outbound loads than inbound cargo. Loaded exports increased 7% for the year, while loaded imports rose 1%. Port officials attributed the overall performance to a broad cargo mix tied to the Houston region’s industrial base, including petrochemical and industrial shipments, manufacturing-related freight, and consumer-oriented imports.

Operational momentum built through the year. By September 2025, Port Houston had reached 3,270,595 TEUs year-to-date—its fastest pace to the three-million-TEU mark—before finishing the year at a record annual total.

Infrastructure additions and productivity improvements

Port Houston’s 2025 results coincided with several capacity and equipment initiatives at the public terminals. At Bayport Container Terminal, Wharf 7 was placed into service, adding 1,000 feet of berth space and expanding annual container-handling capacity by more than 500,000 TEUs. The port also took delivery of five rubber-tired gantry cranes during 2025, with additional units scheduled for delivery in early 2026, expanding the overall fleet across Bayport and Barbours Cut.

Port Houston also reported terminal automation upgrades that improved productivity, alongside continued high levels of gate and yard activity, including millions of truck visits and terminal transactions across the year.

Traffic patterns: fewer vessel arrivals, continued barge activity

While cargo volumes rose, vessel arrivals along the Houston Ship Channel totaled 8,099 in 2025, a 4% decline from 2024. Barge movements totaled 209,616 for the year. Port Houston’s year-end reporting noted increased activity in chemical tankers, bulk shipments, and general cargo categories, reflecting demand linked to energy, plastics, machinery, and related industrial supply chains.

• Total cargo at public terminals (2025): 54,491,066 short tons (+3% year over year)

• Total container volume (2025): 4,303,345 TEUs (+4%)

• Loaded exports (2025): +7%; loaded imports (2025): +1%

• Houston Ship Channel vessel arrivals (2025): 8,099 (-4%); barge movements: 209,616

Port Houston’s 2025 performance combined record container throughput with higher overall tonnage, supported by capacity additions at Bayport and ongoing equipment modernization.