It was estimated that on the first day of the strike (October 1st, 2024), 147 vessels carrying $34.3 billion in goods arrived at 14 idle ports along the East and Gulf coasts of America. The strike comes during peak shipping season, impacting as much as 49% of all U.S. imports.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, shows the companies most exposed to the strike - the ones with the most twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) imported at East and Gulf coast ports over the past year - based on data from ImportGenius and Arbor Data Science shared by Liz Ann Sonders.

Retail Giants and Tech Firms at Highest Risk from Strike

Below, we show the companies most exposed to the dockworker strike, based on twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) imported over the last year:

As the most exposed company overall, Walmart announced that it prepared for the strike by having extra inventory in key product categories to mitigate supply chain disruptions.

For context, Walmart, the world's largest retailer, imported an average of 4,000 TEUs per month through these ports over the past year. The average value of one container can fall around $50,000.

Other major retailers, including IKEA and Home Depot face significant exposure, while tech firms Samsung and LG ranked in the top five highest importers last year.