Port profile · Seattle and Tacoma · one price we watched move · read 07/26–07/29/2026
Northwest Seaport Alliance published 262,546 TEU for June 2026, down 4.4% year on year — and that is a figure for the pair, because two harbours have been counted as one port here since 2015. Nothing we hold divides it between Seattle and Tacoma.
It is also one of three ports on this site publishing that month in that measure, alongside Oakland at 181,356 and Los Angeles at 1,002,734. Of the three it is the only one that fell. One month is not a trend, three figures are not a ranking, and no position is printed. What separates the two harbours, and what does not, is the comparison linked at the top of this page.
The alliance’s own release, reached through the results · read 07/26/2026.
Northwest Seaport Alliance has no free-time rule we could locate, and neither does any other port on this coast: not one West Coast authority rule has been read anywhere on this site.
Neither harbour is singled out for free time by any of the nine carriers either — only New York and Savannah are. The three start hours this site holds all belong to other ports and are shown below labelled with whose they are.
How this profile is built · what we are paid
Container discharged at Seattle or Tacoma · no published clock for either harbour
| Whose tariff | Scope | The clock starts | Source · read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia Ports Authority | Savannah, Rule 34-025 | first 12:01 AM after discharge | GPA Rule 34-025 · read 07/26/2026 |
| Maersk | Los Angeles and Long Beach imports | first 3:00 AM after discharge | Maersk, USA Imports · read 07/26/2026 |
| Seaboard Marine | US imports | first 08:00 of the first working day after discharge | Seaboard Marine, 11/05/2024 · read 07/26/2026 |
Northwest Seaport Alliance carries nineteen tariff lines and a median of $260, which ties Charleston for the cheapest single port in the country. One carrier names the harbours in a line of their own and the rest price them through a group; not one tariff separates Seattle from Tacoma.
That single line is also the only price on this entire site we have watched change. The tariff in force expired 07/31/2026 and its successor, effective 08/01/2026, moved exactly these two harbours: 265, 317 and 421 against 263, 313 and 413. Twelve other port groups in the same document were untouched.
What a 40-foot import container picks up at Seattle or Tacoma
What the same line looks like where more than one carrier names the port: the cost stack ranked port by port.
HMM tariff HDMU-040, rule 101-1, amendments 1146 and 1157 · read 07/29/2026.
| Charge at Seattle and Tacoma | Billed by | Owed by | The document that sets it | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carrier demurrage | Ocean carrier | Consignee or the counterparty named on the invoice, not both | nineteen lines reach these harbours and no tariff separates them | $265 first paid day from 08/01/2026 · $263 beforenineteen lines — median $260HMM amendments 1146 and 1157 · read 07/29/2026 |
| Terminal storage | The marine terminal | Cargo interest, via the carrier | a terminal tariff we have not read | not checked yetgap A — and no terminal here is named in anything we hold |
| Terminal handling | Ocean carrier | Whoever the Incoterm assigns | the carrier’s tariff, by port | not checked yet |
| Local fees | The port authority or the terminal | By fee | a fee schedule we have not located | not checked yetgap J |
Northwest Seaport Alliance operates terminals at two harbours and nothing we hold names one of them. What to obtain instead: the terminal on your booking, its address and its gate hours — the last of which is unread at every port on this site.
| Terminal | Which harbour | Address | Gate hours and appointments |
|---|---|---|---|
| not checked yetnothing we hold names a terminal at either harbour | not checked yet | not checked yetgap H | not checked yetgap H |
Northwest Seaport Alliance publishes no dwell figure we found, and no live panel for it has been located — unlike Los Angeles and Long Beach, where dashboards exist and remain unopened.
| Figure | What it measures | Status of the number |
|---|---|---|
| not checked yet | anything for either harbour here | nothing published that we found, no live panel locatedgap E |
| 3.1 to 6.75 days | the spread at Los Angeles in one season | quoted in the market, no documentsearch results · read 07/26/2026 |
| about 20 hours to 9.1 days | the spread at Savannah across three measures | quoted in the market, no documentsearch results · read 07/26/2026 |
Which dwell each figure means: how long a box sits, and which dwell is meant. Which ports are backed up right now, and on what measure: which ports are backed up right now.
Northwest Seaport Alliance local fees: not checked. The searches around this entity ask for an organisation chart, board meetings, salaries and jobs — the demand profile of a public body rather than of a freight vendor, which is a reason to expect published schedules and not a finding that they exist.
| Fee | Port | Amount | Who pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Any local fee at these harbours | Seattle and Tacoma | not checked yetgap J | not checked yet |
| Clean Truck Fund rate | Los Angeles, for contrast | $10 per TEU · $20 over 20 ftPort of Los Angeles · read 07/26/2026 | Motor carrier, passed through |
| Sustained Import Dwell Fee | Houston, for contrast | $45 per unit per day from day 8Port Houston · read 07/26/2026 | Cargo interest, billed by the port itself |
Northwest Seaport Alliance publishes a volume figure and a headline value of trade, and almost nothing else reached us. One row below is unusual enough to note: this is the only entity on the site whose released material carries a third measure of size.
| What an importer needs | Published? | Read by us? |
|---|---|---|
| A volume figure with its period | yes — 262,546 TEU for June 2026 | readread 07/26/2026 |
| A split into full imports and full exports | yes — both phrases appear in the release | found, not readno figure for either survived our capture |
| A per-harbour split of any figure | not checked yet | not checked yetthe release publishes for the pair — gap D |
| The port authority’s own tariff | not checked yetnever located — gap B | not checked yet |
| Free time in days | not checked yet | from one carrier’s tariff onlyread 07/29/2026 |
| Dwell with a definition | not checked yetgap E | not checked yet |
| Terminal names, addresses and gate hours | not checked yetgap H | not checked yet |
| A local fee schedule | not checked yetgap J | not checked yet |
| Read: one figure and one tariff line. This ledger ranks our reading as much as anyone’s disclosure, and nobody paid for a place in it or to be absent from it. | ||
The West Coast compared on what can actually be compared: the West Coast ports compared.
Northwest Seaport Alliance routes no inland market in our catalogue, and the road leg is unpriced at every US port. Both statements are about our own map and our own reading rather than about these harbours.
| Destination | How the box moves | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| The Puget Sound region | road | not publishedgap F |
| The interior | rail from a ramp we have not named | not publishedgap F |
| A gateway page on this site | not applicable | not applicableour map routes no market through these harbours yet |
The road leg has no published figure at any US port, which is a property of the market rather than of this one.
This is the local one. One carrier prices both harbours identically, so on that tariff the switch costs nothing — and eight carriers name neither, so on those the rate comes from a group whose definition we have not confirmed.
Cargo interest — ask which group line was applied.
Your box lands elsewhere on the coast and the tariff that applies is the one where it landed.
Who pays depends on the cause: the carrier for its own schedule change, the shipper for a late gate-in.
It stays behind while the ship sails, and the cause decides the payer.
Carrier for overbooking; shipper for late gate-in or missing paperwork.
Charges do not stop accruing because nobody collects the box.
The named consignee, and the liability survives the abandonment.
Both of the middle two have their own page: when the ship skips your port and what to do when the box will not move.
Northwest Seaport Alliance demurrage arrives on a carrier’s invoice, not the port’s, and that invoice answers to a federal rule: 46 CFR Part 541, in force since 05/28/2024. The rule has been before the D.C. Circuit twice since, and the decision of 09/29/2025 changed who may be billed — so the text to read is the current one at eCFR, not a summary of the 2024 announcement.
One thing this profile can tell you that no other can: a rate here moved between two editions of one document, and the change was two dollars on the first paid day and eight on the top tier. If your invoice covers days either side of 08/01/2026, check which edition the carrier applied.
What the invoice has to contain, and how the dispute runs: the federal rules your invoice has to meet.
Descriptive, not legal advice. The tariff and the invoice in your own file govern your case.
Northwest Seaport Alliance covers two metros and we have counted neither in the Federal Maritime Commission’s register of ocean transportation intermediaries. Two port areas have been counted elsewhere — 95 organisations at Los Angeles and Long Beach, eleven at Savannah. Counting here would mean first deciding whether two harbours are one market, which is exactly the question this entity exists to blur.
FMC OTI register download · read 07/28/2026.
Not read and not located here: the authority’s own tariff, the terminal tariffs, any dwell figure, the local fee schedule, and any per-harbour split. How each status is defined: how every figure here is sourced.
262,546 TEU in June 2026, down 4.4% year on year, published for the alliance rather than for Seattle or Tacoma separately. It comes from the alliance's own release reached through the results rather than from a series, and one month is not a trend.
Because everything we hold is published for the pair. The alliance has combined the two since 2015, the volume figure is the alliance's, and the one carrier that names the harbours gives them identical numbers. Our catalogue made the same decision, and the comparison page checks twelve rows against each other and finds none that differ.
One of the nine carriers publishes tiers for these harbours: $265, $317 and $421 since 1 August 2026, and $263, $313 and $413 before that. A median of $260 exists for the pair over nineteen lines since 01/08/2026; the two harbours are still priced as one alliance and never separately.
Yes, and it is the only price change we have observed anywhere on this site. That carrier's tariff expired on 31 July 2026 and its successor raised the three tiers by two, four and eight dollars. Nothing else in the nine documents moved.
Neither, on anything we hold. The carrier that names both gives them identical tiers, the volume is published for the pair, and no figure in our reading separates them. The comparison page sets that out row by row.
No dwell figure has been read for either harbour, and no live panel has been located — unlike at Los Angeles and Long Beach where dashboards are located and unread. Dwell also means several different things across this site, so a single number would need its measure named.
A value of trade the release carries, alongside a count of 176 trading partners, and the period it belongs to does not survive in what we captured. It is reported here and adopted as nothing — a dollar value cannot be converted into containers, which is part of why this site publishes no size ranking.
Unknown to us. No port authority rule has been read for any West Coast port, and neither harbour is one of the two ports any of the nine carriers singles out for free time. The free-day count comes from whichever group line your carrier applies.
Because this is a public body. That demand shape is a reason to look for its charge schedules among agency records, which we have not done — and on a coast where no port authority rule has been read at all, it is the most promising place to start.