Given that the Nation's maritime ports moves more international cargo by weight and value than any other U.S. mode of transportation, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act of 2015 established the Port Performance Freight Statistics Program in the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The FAST Act requires BTS to report statistics on capacity and throughput at the Nation's top maritime ports.

BTS strives to continually improve the Port Performance Freight Statistics Program. If you have a suggestion on how to make this product better, find an issue, or have a question, please contact us. We welcome your feedback.

The Introduction was updated in January 2024 with 2021 or the latest port data available.

The amount of time a vessel spends in a port is a major factor contributing to cargo throughput and performance.  Vessel dwell time reveals the amount of time a vessel spends at the port terminal.  BTS currently estimates dwell times for container, liquid bulk (tanker), and roll-on/roll-off (Ro/Ro) vessels using U.S. Coast Guard Automatic Identification System (AIS) data.  

This Vessel Dwell Times section was updated in  in January 2024 with data through June 2023. BTS plans to continue updating vessel dwell time data quarterly.

Port capacity is a measure of the maximum throughput that a port and its marine terminals can handle over a given time period. This maximum can be set by physical constraints and factors such as air draft restrictions, channel depths, the number and type of container cranes, and the proximity of rail connections.

This Port Capacity section was updated in January 2024 with 2021 data.

Port throughput can be measured from different perspectives. For example, throughput could be measured by the amount of cargo or the number of vessels that a port handles over a given time period. This includes the total and dry bulk tonnage, number of twenty-foot equivalent units, and vessel calls.

This Port Throughput section was updated in January 2024 with 2021 data.

The Port Profiles provide interactive capacity and throughput data for the Nation’s largest container, tonnage, and dry bulk ports.

BTS will update this interactive Port Profiles as new data or performance measures are made available.

The Port Profiles were updated in January 2024 with 2021 or the latest port data available.

The Port Data Catalog allows users to filter, view and download the port data used on this site and in the interactive Port Profiles.

The Port Data Catalog was updated in February 2024 with 2021 or the latest port data available.

U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2023 Port Performance Freight Statistics Program: Annual Report (Washington, DC: 2023).