How stretched is global shipping, and how busy is the Port of LA?

Steps

1. GSCPI: No API. Downloaded the NY Fed download file (sheet 'GSCPI Monthly Data', 345 months) and took every month, rounded to 2 decimals. Cross-check: every month equals the latest ('Oct-26') column of the NY Fed interactive data CSV at 2 decimals (0 differences). That CSV also lists 4 months from September 1997 that the download omits; they are not used. The latest value and the previous month equal the NY Fed page summary text.
2. Port of LA: No API. The monthly tables on the Historical TEU Statistics page for each year 2015 to 2026 (rows January to December; columns Loaded Imports, Empty Imports, Total Imports, Loaded Exports, Empty Exports, Total Exports, Total TEUs, Prior Year Change). empties = Empty Imports + Empty Exports; total = the port's Total TEUs column. The 2014 page was also read, only to check the Prior Year Change column for 2015.

345 GSCPI months and 140 port months. Units: GSCPI, Index, standard deviations from the series' historical average (0 is the average; positive means supply chain pressure above average); port, TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units), as reported by the port, with quarter-TEU decimals. Every derived figure on this page (changes, indexes, averages, counts) is computed from the published rows, and the table under each chart says how.

Checks

• Download equals the Oct-26 column of the interactive data CSV for all 345 months at 2 decimals; no gaps; latest value and previous month equal the NY Fed page summary text.
• Loaded imports + empty imports + loaded exports + empty exports = the total used, within 0.06 TEU, in all 140 months.
• Monthly sums for 2015 to 2025 equal both the port's 'Total Calendar Year' row on each year page and the annual list on the main statistics page (within 1 TEU); 2026 year to date (7,038,973.25 TEU) equals the year page's total row.
• The port's Prior Year Change column recomputes from the total of the same month a year earlier for all 140 months (within 0.006 percentage points).
• August 2026 loaded imports, loaded exports, total empty and total equal the port's Latest Monthly Container Counts table.
• 2020-11: the port's Total TEUs cell is malformed ('889.,748.15'); the sum of the four components is used, and it agrees with the port's calendar-year total for 2020.

Caveats

• Two different sources with different timing: the GSCPI runs to September 2026 and the port data to August 2026. GSCPI values are re-estimated every release: compared with the Sep-26 release, 322 of 344 overlapping months differ by more than 0.005 and the largest change is 0.37 (January 1998). The NY Fed says recent months can be revised as actual data replace imputed values, and some inputs revise up to twelve months back. The GSCPI is a summary index of transport costs and manufacturing surveys for several economies, not a count of shipments. Port data cover the Port of Los Angeles only (not Long Beach), count containers (TEU), not value or weight, and recent months can be revised by the port. Empties are mostly empty exports. Public data, not my business.

Releases and revisions

• GSCPI: October 2026 release (the 'Oct-26' column of the NY Fed interactive data), carrying data through September 2026; the NY Fed updates on the fourth business day of each month, which was October 6, 2026 (holidays not checked). NY Fed revises past values every release.
• Port of LA: August 2026 is the latest published month; the port publishes the prior month in the second half of the following month, so September 2026 is expected after the retrieval date.
• Against the Sep-26 release, 322 of 344 overlapping months changed by more than 0.005; the largest change was January 1998 (-1.16 to -0.79).