There are 72 container terminals in the United States located in 30 container ports. The first automated container terminal in the United States, Virginia International Gateway, was opened in 2007 as a greenfield project. Then, at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, TraPac Terminal (2014) and Long Beach Container Terminal (2016) were automated through a reconversion of their terminals. By 2024, there were three automated terminals on the West Coast and three automated terminals on the East Coast:
- The terminals on the West Coast are fully automated, implying that ship-to-yard (with Automated Guided Vehicles or Automated Straddle Carriers) and yard operations (with Automated Stacking Cranes) are automated.
- The terminals on the East Coast are partially (semi) automated, implying that only yard operations are automated with ASC.
These automated terminals account for 8.3% of all container terminals.
Container terminal automation in the United States faces several challenges. The first concerns the opposition of union labor to terminal automation projects. Many port labor contracts, such as for longshoremen, state that only union labor is allowed to carry out some functions. Further, contracts can stipulate a minimum number of workers a terminal must employ. Another concern is the lower productivity of American container terminals compared to many of their European and East Asian counterparts, which automation could help remediate.
One of the most important challenges concerns the lack of footprint available for terminal expansion, particularly at major gateways such as LA/LB and New York. As container volumes continue to grow at an average rate of 2% to 5% per year, several large terminal facilities will run out of footprint in the medium term. Densification remains one of the few alternatives, which is associated with automation.