Comparison · the Gulf pair · one figure between them · read 07/26–07/29/2026
Port of Houston charges $45 a day for a box that sits, and New Orleans holds no figure of any kind in our reading
- Port of Houston levies a Sustained Import Dwell Fee of $45 per unit per day from day 8 after free time expires, and it is the only port authority charge tied directly to dwell that we have read at any US port. Two parties can therefore bill you for the same day here: the carrier under a tariff that five of ten write with this port named, and the port under a fee that names the days exactly.
- Houston is first in the United States by foreign waterborne tonnage at 220.1 million short tons in 2024, and that figure counts liquid and bulk alongside containers. It answers how much moves through the port rather than how many boxes, which is what ten of the fifteen questions above these results are actually asking about.
- New Orleans holds no figure of any kind in our reading — no tariff line, no median, no volume, no dwell number, no located port document and no profile in any wave of this site. It is the least covered entity named anywhere here, and the column stays empty rather than being filled with a neighbour's numbers.
- US container ports in this pair are not one port on either side. The results carry Corpus Christi and Texas City on the Texas side and Port of South Louisiana on the other, and the only comparative story in the capture groups New Orleans together with Corpus Christi against Houston — an axis running across the two states rather than between them.
Port of Houston and Port of New Orleans are both invisible to the carrier tariffs, and they are not equally invisible to us: one has a fee we read in full, and the other has nothing at all.
How this comparison is built · what we are paid
- Neither of these ports is named by any of the nine tariffs. Houston falls into the group written for ports the documents decline to list; New Orleans appears in none of them at all.
- One figure separates the two sides and it is not a carrier’s: Port Houston levies a fee tied directly to dwell. No effective date has been read for it, so it cannot be aged.
- New Orleans is not ranked below Houston. Nothing has been read for it, and a missing number could go either way. Ordering the two on that basis would rank our own coverage.
- Neither port has paid to appear here, and no link on this site is a referral link.
| Port of Houston | Port of New Orleans | |
|---|---|---|
| Named in the nine tariffs | no — priced through the residual group | no — absent from all of them |
| A carrier median | not published | not published |
| A charge levied by the port itself | $45 per unit per day from day 8 after free time expiresPort Houston · read 07/26/2026 | not checked yetunchecked in both directions |
| A size figure | 220.1M short tons in 2024 — first in the United States by foreign waterborne tonnagePort Houston · read 07/26/2026 | not checked yet |
| A profile on this site | yes | none — the least covered entity named anywhere here |
See alsowhat it costs to land a box at houston →the Gulf Coast ports compared →
The variable is whether the port itself charges for time
The deciding variable here is who bills you for time, and it is the only place these two can be set against each other at all.
At Houston the port authority itself charges for a box that sits: $45 per unit per day from day eight after free time expires. It is the only port authority charge tied directly to dwell read anywhere on this site — a second biller for the same days, starting on a different day from the carrier’s. At New Orleans we have not checked whether anything of the kind exists, and this page says so in both directions rather than assuming either.
How every figure here is sourced and what each status permits: how every figure here is sourced.
The cost stack at Houston and New Orleans, and why Houston's is upside down
Both columns of this stack are empty at the top, where every other comparison on this site has its strongest line.
| Line of the stack | Houston | New Orleans |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier demurrage, first paid day | not publishedno rate line names this port | not publishedabsent from all ten tariffs |
| A port fee tied to dwell | $45 per unit per day from day 8Port Houston · read 07/26/2026 | not checked yet |
| Terminal storage | not checked yetgap A | not checked yetgap A |
| Terminal handling | not checked yet | not checked yet |
| Drayage | not publishedgap F | not publishedgap F |
A carrier’s invoice for these days answers to 46 CFR Part 541, in force since 05/28/2024 and before the D.C. Circuit twice since. Test the document before paying it: the federal rules your invoice has to meet. Where the tariffs do name a port: the cost stack ranked port by port.
Two clocks run at Houston and neither of them is named Houston
Neither port is singled out for free time by any carrier, and neither publishes an authority rule we could locate — so the clock arrives here the same way the rate does, through a group written for somebody else.
| Houston | New Orleans | |
|---|---|---|
| Free time in the carrier tariffs | four days at most carriers, five at one — through a group that never names itnine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026 | the same group lines apply and none names it eithernine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026 |
| A second clock run by the port | yes — the dwell fee starts on day 8 after free time expiresread 07/26/2026 | not checked yet |
| The authority’s own free-time rule | not checked yetgap B | not checked yetgap B |
What each carrier gives before any of it starts: how many free days each port allows.
When Houston's eighth day is the number that matters, and why New Orleans is not ranked below it
One scenario has a number and the other is a refusal — and on this pair the refusal is the more important half.
Houston, if the box may sit past day eight
That is the one thing this comparison can price. From day eight after free time expires the port itself charges $45 per unit per day, on top of whatever the carrier is already billing. It is a cost you can plan against, and it is the only such figure on the Gulf.
Port Houston · read 07/26/2026
New Orleans, which this page declines to rank
No rate line, no median, no volume figure, no dwell figure, no located document and no profile. The missing number could go either way, and ordering the two on that basis would publish our own coverage as a judgement about a port.
nothing read
And the size question, which belongs to a different measure
Houston is first in the United States on foreign waterborne tonnage — 220.1 million short tons in 2024 — a measure that counts liquid and bulk alongside boxes. Against it, Los Angeles moved 10,239,318 TEU in calendar 2025. Two measures, two winners, and neither answers what a container costs.
both ports’ own figures · read 07/26/2026
The coast as a whole is linked at the top of this page. How long boxes sit anywhere, and which dwell that means: how long a box sits, and which dwell is meant.
What the Houston and New Orleans difference is not
This query carries more foreign intent in its suggestions than any other page on this site.
- Not a sports fixture. Every autosuggest entry on this query is about a basketball match, and three of them are betting terms. The names of these two cities carry more non-freight demand than the ports carry freight demand.
- Not cruise. One refinement added to the head query asks about cruises out of Houston, and the questions follow it. Every figure on this page comes from container documents.
- Not a tonnage ranking. The only comparative trade story in this capture groups New Orleans with Corpus Christi against Houston, and its measure is tonnage. We take no ranking, figure or direction from it.
- Not Laredo. It answers the busiest-Texas-port question in these results and is a land crossing on the Mexican border. A port of entry is a customs code, and Texas holds them on land as well as on water.
- Not a question about the future of a city. One of the questions above these results asks how long until New Orleans is submerged. This page is about a container.
Every US container port we cover, with what has been read about each: every US container port we cover.
Questions about Houston against New Orleans for imports
Houston vs New Orleans for imports?
Both sides have something to compare now. Houston carries eight tariff lines with a median of $270 and its port charges $45 per unit per day from the eighth day after free time expires; New Orleans carries ten lines with a median of $257, the cheapest in the country. Neither has a volume figure or a port document we have read.
What does the Port of Houston charge for demurrage?
The carrier's rate comes from its group for ports not named separately, so no Houston median exists in our reading. The port's own Sustained Import Dwell Fee is $45 per unit per day from day 8 after free time, and from that day two parties are charging for the same day.
Is New Orleans a big port?
No figure for it has been read here. The results also carry Port of South Louisiana, so New Orleans is not the only Louisiana port in this cluster, and any size answer would depend on which of them and on which measure.
Is Houston a major port?
First in the United States by foreign waterborne tonnage, at 220.1 million short tons in 2024. That measure counts liquid and bulk alongside containers, so it says how much moves through the port rather than how many boxes.
What is the busiest port in the Gulf of Mexico?
Not answerable on a container measure. The one figure we hold for this coast is tonnage, the results name at least four Gulf ports across two states, and no comparable container series exists across them.
Is Houston the busiest port in Texas?
The results answering this surface Laredo, which is a land crossing on the Mexican border rather than a seaport. A port of entry is a customs code, and Texas holds them on land as well as on water.
How far apart are Houston and New Orleans?
No distance is published anywhere on this site. It is a fair question for a routing decision and it is one we cannot answer, which is why it appears here rather than being left out.
Do cruise ships go out of Houston?
A different subject from this page, which is about container imports. Cruise refines this query directly in the results, so the two subjects share the words — and nothing on this page is about passenger sailings.
Why does this page show up for a basketball game?
Because Houston and New Orleans have teams as well as ports, and every autosuggest for this query is about the fixture. The word port is what keeps this page on freight, and there is nothing here about the match.