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BTS Releases North American Freight Numbers for February

PostPosted: Wed May 01, 2013 8:30 pm
by admin
BTS Releases North American Freight Numbers for February
Trucks transported 59% of U.S.-NAFTA trade in February 2013

Trucks carried 59.1 percent of the $88.4 billion of freight moved in February 2013 between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners, Canada and Mexico, followed by rail at 15.3 percent, vessels at 9.7 percent, pipelines at 7.7 percent and air at 3.6 percent, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The surface transportation modes of truck, rail and pipeline carried 82.1 percent of the total NAFTA freight flows.

BTS, a part of the Department’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration, reported that in February, for freight flows with Canada, trucks carried 54.4 percent of the $48.9 billion, followed by rail at 17.0 percent, pipelines at 13.3 percent, vessels at 5.3 percent and air at 4.4 percent. The surface transportation modes of truck, rail and pipeline carried 84.7 percent of the total U.S.-Canada freight flows.

For freight flows with Mexico in February, trucks carried 64.8 percent of the $39.6 billion, followed by vessels at 15.2 percent, rail at 13.2 percent, air at 2.8 percent and pipelines at 0.8 percent. The surface transportation modes of truck, rail and pipeline carried 78.8 percent of the total U.S.-Mexico freight flows.

Beginning with January 2013, BTS monthly TransBorder press releases contain data for all modes of transportation. Press releases and the BTS website now define surface transportation modes as truck, rail and pipeline. Data on surface modes can be found in the full press release in Figure 3 and in Tables 2, 3, 4 and 7.
The value of goods moving between the U.S. and its NAFTA partners by all modes of transportation decreased by 1.0 percent from February 2012 and rose 61.8 percent from February 2009, the lowest February during the last recession. Goods moving by truck, pipeline, and air each declined, while rail and vessel transportation both increased from the same month last year. Data in the full press release are not adjusted for inflation, except for the monthly totals illustrated in Figure 2 for comparison.