Ranking · the Gulf Coast · four ports, 33 rate lines, all named · read 07/26–08/01/2026
Gulf Coast ports hold the largest US port in the country by tonnage and the cheapest median of any coast, and every one of the four is named outright in the tariffs
- Gulf Coast ports carry 33 rate lines across four ports. Houston, Mobile, New Orleans and Tampa are each named outright in the import tariffs, and New Orleans holds the cheapest median in the country at $257. Corpus Christi, Texas City and Port of South Louisiana are named by nobody. Until 08/01/2026 this site said the tariffs named no Gulf port at all, and that was true of the four tariffs then transcribed rather than of the coast.
- US container ports on this coast include the largest in the country by tonnage and the cheapest median of either coast, and they are not the same port. Houston moved 220.1 million short tons in 2024, first in the United States by foreign waterborne tonnage, and that measure counts liquid and bulk alongside boxes. Size and price point in opposite directions here more sharply than anywhere else on this site.
- Gulf ports rank here by what can be checked about each, and the top three are Houston, which has a profile, a tonnage figure and a charge read in full; New Orleans, which is named in a comparison on this site and holds nothing else at all; and Corpus Christi, which appears in two of our captures and has never been opened.
- Port authorities are the only party that has ever answered on this coast. Houston levies $45 per unit per day from the eighth day after free time expires — a meter starting a week later than any carrier's first paid day, and the only figure the whole coast carries. On every other coast the carrier tariff answers first; here it answers for nobody.
Every Gulf port we can name, and what each one lets you check
Gulf Coast ports hold the largest US port on one measure of size and not a single line in any carrier tariff we read. That combination is the page.
How this table is built · what we are paid
- All four Gulf ports are named outright — Houston by four carriers, Mobile by five, New Orleans by four and Tampa by three — and the cost order below is taken over 33 rate lines. Until 01/08/2026 this page said the opposite, and that was true of the four tariffs transcribed at the time rather than of the nine.
- The one figure this coast carries is levied by a port authority rather than by a carrier, and no effective date has been read for it — so it cannot be aged.
- The four ports with nothing read are not ordered against each other. Ordering them would rank our own search rather than the ports.
- The list of ports on this coast comes from result sets rather than from a register, and it is not claimed to be complete.
- No port has paid to appear here, and no link on this site is a referral link.
| Port | Named in any of the nine tariffs? | Any figure we hold | Profile on this site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Houston | no | $45 per unit per day from day 8 · 220.1M short tons in 2024a port authority dwell fee and a tonnage figure — neither is a carrier ratePort Houston · read 07/26/2026 | yes |
| New Orleans | no | not checked yetno rate, no volume, no dwell, no located document | none — the least covered entity named anywhere on this site |
| Corpus Christi | no | not checked yet | none |
| Texas City | no | not checked yet | none |
| Port of South Louisiana | no | not checked yet | none |
| The four ports with nothing read are deliberately left unordered. Ranking them would be ranking our own search. | |||
nine US import demurrage tariffs · read 07/28–08/01/2026; the port list from three of our own captures · 07/26/2026
The one figure the whole coast carries is not a carrier’s at all: Port Houston levies a Sustained Import Dwell Fee of $45 per unit per day from day 8 after free time expires — the only port authority charge tied directly to dwell read anywhere on this site. We have read no effective date for it, so it is published as read and cannot be aged.
What this ranks, and why it cannot rank by size or by price
A Gulf port is priced here the way an unnamed port is priced everywhere: through a group written for the ports a document declines to list. Eight of the nine carriers publish a number of free days and not one of those lines names a Gulf port either, so the clock arrives the same way the rate does.
The coast is also not treated as a separate cost market by the trade itself — the documents ranking for the coast comparison write East and Gulf as one range rather than against each other. How the two actually compare on what we read: how gulf coast and east coast actually differ.
How this Gulf ranking is built, and who paid for a place in it
What we are paid
- Nothing on this page has been paid for. No port, terminal or carrier has paid to appear here, to be positioned here, or to be left out, and no outbound link on this site is a referral link.
- If that ever changes, the rate goes on the page carrying the link, at one rate, the same for everyone — and a position in a table still will not be for sale.
Where the tariffs do name a port, and what the same line costs there: the cost stack ranked port by port.
The cost stack this coast cannot fill
One boundary case on this page is the most likely thing here to cost a reader money.
What the market publishes about Gulf Coast ports
This coast is discussed in the results mostly by a measure that does not answer an import question, and partly by a sports fixture. These are our own counts.
| What we measured | Value |
|---|---|
| The only published ranking these ports appear in | a top-25 list by total tonnage — the measure that counts oil and chemicals alongside boxes |
| How the trade writes this coast against the East | as one range — “East and Gulf” — rather than as two markets |
| What the busiest-Texas-port question is answered with | Laredo, a land crossing on the Mexican border |
| What every autosuggest entry on the Houston–New Orleans query belongs to | a sports fixture — these city names carry more non-freight demand than the ports carry freight demand |
| Gulf terminals named anywhere in our reading | one, at Houston |
our own captures around the Gulf ports, Google US, 07/26/2026
Who can invoice you on this coast, and whose document we have read
On this coast the interesting biller is not the carrier.
| Who | For what | Rate we hold |
|---|---|---|
| The ocean carrier | demurrage, at a rate five carriers publish for this port by name | not publishednamed outright by at least three carriers each |
| Port Houston, the authority itself | a fee tied directly to dwell, from day 8 | $45 per unit per dayread at one port; unchecked at the other fourPort Houston · read 07/26/2026 |
| The marine terminal | storage after its own free time | not checked yetgap A — nothing located on this coast |
| The motor carrier | the road leg | not publishedgap F, as at every US port |
How many free days each carrier gives before any of this begins: how many free days each port allows.
If the invoice comes from the port rather than the carrier
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 — read the current text at eCFR. On this coast the first question is which group line the carrier applied, because nothing in the document names your port.
What the invoice has to contain, and how the dispute runs: the federal rules your invoice has to meet.
The one Gulf port with a profile, and the two named beside it
One Gulf port is profiled on this site and one comparison covers the coast. The rest of the row above is honest emptiness.
Houston — first by tonnage, unnamed by every tariff
220.1 million short tons of foreign waterborne cargo in 2024, first in the United States on that measure — which counts liquid and bulk alongside containers, and is two years behind our reading window. On containers it is not first, and no carrier tariff names it at all.
And the pair the trade actually compares
Houston against New Orleans is discussed in the results by tonnage, and the only comparative story we found groups New Orleans with Corpus Christi against Houston — again on tonnage. We take no ranking and no direction from it, and the comparison page explains why that measure cannot answer an import question.
New Orleans — the least covered entity named on this site
No rate line, no median, no volume figure, no dwell figure, no located port document and no profile in any wave. It is named here because it is named in our captures, and everything else about it is a blank we have not filled.
nothing read
Where this Gulf ranking does not apply
Four separations matter more on this page than on any other ranking.
- Florida’s Atlantic ports are not Gulf ports here. Miami with Port Everglades is an East Coast group in our reading and the cheapest one in the country. Counting it as Gulf would import a figure from the wrong coast.
- A land crossing is not a seaport. Laredo answers the busiest-Texas-port question in these results; a port of entry is a customs code and Texas holds them on land as well as on water.
- Tonnage is not boxes. The only published ranking these ports appear in counts weight of all cargo, which answers how much moves rather than how many containers.
- Channel depth prices nothing. It circulates in this capture as a vessel constraint and appears in none of the nine tariffs.
How stale the two Gulf figures are, and why neither can be aged
Nothing on this coast can be given a cadence, and the reason is that we hold no figure that moves. The one tariff revision observed inside our reading window changed two lines on the opposite coast and touched nothing here — which says nothing about how often Gulf figures move, only that we caught none moving.
The Houston dwell fee has no effective date in our reading either, so even the one figure this coast carries cannot be aged.
Opening Port Houston’s own tariff would likely give this page a date, a free-time rule and a fee schedule at once. It is the cheapest single win available on this coast.
Questions about Gulf Coast ports and what they charge
Which Gulf Coast port is cheapest to import through?
All four can be priced now: New Orleans at $257 over ten rate lines, Tampa at $265 over seven, Houston and Mobile at $270 over eight each. Every one is named outright by at least three carriers. The only charge on this coast that a port rather than a carrier levies is Houston's own fee, $45 per unit per day from the eighth day.
What are the Gulf Coast ports?
The ones our captures name are Houston, New Orleans, Corpus Christi, Texas City and Port of South Louisiana. That list comes from result sets rather than from an official register, so treat it as what we have seen rather than as complete.
What does it cost to leave a box at a Gulf port?
At Houston, $45 per unit per day from the eighth day after free time expires, charged by the port and running alongside whatever the carrier's group line charges from day one. For the other four ports we have not looked.
Why is Houston not in any carrier tariff?
It is, inside a group for ports the document does not name separately. The rate exists and the port's name does not appear next to it, which means the figure was set without this port specifically in view.
Is the Gulf cheaper than the East or West Coast?
Unanswerable, and we do not rank it lower for that. Four of the five port groups we read are on the East Coast and none is on the Gulf; the absence is nine documents declining to name these ports, not a finding about what they charge.
Which is the biggest Gulf port?
Houston, on tonnage — 220.1 million short tons in 2024, first in the United States by foreign waterborne tonnage. That measure counts liquid and bulk alongside containers, so it answers how much moves rather than how many boxes.
Is Port Everglades a Gulf port?
No. It is in Florida and on the Atlantic side, and it carries a median of $262. A reader looking for a cheap southern option should not count it as Gulf — though the cheapest median in the country is Gulf, at New Orleans, $257.
What is the busiest port in Texas?
The results answering that 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.
Does the federal demurrage rule cover the Houston fee?
Unchecked. The rule governs carrier demurrage and detention, and whether it reaches a port authority's own charge has not been established. On this coast that distinction matters more than anywhere, because the port's charge is the only one published.
The Gulf is the coast this site has read least, and the reason is documentary rather than geographical: nine carrier tariffs decline to name any port on it. Everything above says which of those blanks are the sources’ and which are ours.