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BTS 26-07
Contact:  Dave Smallen, Tel.:  (202) 366-5568
Thursday, May 31, 2007

BTS Releases North American Surface Trade Numbers for March:
Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico Reached a Monthly Record High in March 2007
(State Rankings in Table 5 and 7)

            Trade using surface transportation between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico was 2.3 percent higher in March 2007 than in March 2006, reaching $69.8 billion, the highest monthly level ever recorded, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (Table 1)

           BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), reported that the value of U.S. surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico rose 16.9 percent in March from February (Table 2).  Month-to-month changes can be affected by seasonal variations and other factors. 

            Trucks carried $49.1 billion of the March trade with Canada and Mexico (Table 2), the highest monthly number ever recorded.  Trade by truck with Canada in March was valued at $29.0 billion (Table 4) and trade by truck with Mexico was $20.1 billion (Table 6). 

Surface transportation consists largely of freight movements by truck, rail and pipeline.  About 90 percent of U.S. trade by value with Canada and Mexico moves on land.

            The value of U.S. surface transportation trade with Canada and Mexico in March was up 53.0 percent compared to March 2002, and up 97.0 percent compared to March 1997, a period of 10 years (Table 3).  Imports in March were up 110.4 percent compared to March 1997, while exports were up 81.6 percent. 

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Canada

 U.S.–Canada surface transportation trade totaled $45.1 billion in March, up 2.4 percent compared to March 2006 (Table 4).  The value of imports carried by truck was 1.6 percent higher in March 2007 than March 2006, while the value of exports carried by truck was 0.4 percent higher.

            Michigan led all states in surface trade with Canada in March with $7.5 billion (Table 5).

U.S. Surface Transportation Trade with Mexico

U.S. – Mexico surface transportation trade totaled $24.7 billion in March, up 2.1 percent compared to March 2006 (Table 6).  The value of imports carried by truck was 8.4 percent higher in March 2007 than March 2006 while the value of exports carried by truck was 5.9 percent lower.  

Texas led all states in surface trade with Mexico in March with $7.5 billion (Table 7).  

The TransBorder Freight Data are a unique subset of official U.S. foreign trade statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau.  New data are tabulated monthly and historical data are not adjusted for inflation.  March TransBorder numbers include data received by BTS as of May 22. 

The news release and summary tables can be found at www.bts.gov.  More information on TransBorder Freight Data and data from previous months are posted on the BTS website at http://www.bts.gov/transborder/.  BTS will release April TransBorder numbers on June 28.

 

Table 1. Value of Monthly U.S. Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico

(millions of dollars)

Month

2005

2006

2007

Percent Change      2005-2006

Percent Change      2006-2007

January

52,334

61,189

60,649

16.9

-0.9

February

53,592

59,804

59,667

11.6

-0.2

March

59,436

68,213

69,768

14.8

2.3

April

58,297

61,742

 

5.9

 

May

57,870

65,994

 

14.0

 

June

59,431

66,898

 

12.6

 

July

49,690

55,939

 

12.6

 

August

60,188

66,354

 

    10.2

 

September

61,166

63,295

 

3.5

 

October

63,985

66,846

 

4.5

 

November

62,894

64,805

 

3.0

 

December

59,104

59,049

 

-0.1

 

Year-to-date

165,362

189,205

190,083

14.4

0.5

Annual

697,987

 760,127

 

 8.9

 

 

                Source: BTS TransBorder Freight Data, http://www.bts.gov/transborder/

                     Note: Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding.


 

Table 2. U.S. Merchandise Trade with Canada and Mexico by Surface Modes of Transportation

(millions of dollars)

Mode

 

March

2006

February

2007

March

2007

Percent Change     Feb. 2007 - Mar. 2007

Percent Change March

2006-2007

All Surface Modes

Imports

38,440

 

33,978

 

39,912

 

17.5

 

3.8

 

Exports

29,772

 

25,689

 

29,856

 

16.2

 

0.3

 

Total

68,213

 

59,667

 

69,768

 

16.9

 

2.3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Truck

Imports

24,751

 

22,141

 

25,910

 

17.0

 

4.7

 

Exports

23,615

 

20,290

 

23,191

 

14.3

 

-1.8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rail

Imports

8,068

 

6,696

 

8,465

 

26.4

 

4.9

 

Exports

3,556

 

3,090

 

4,018

 

30.1

 

13.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pipeline

Imports

4,378

 

3,968

 

4,313

 

8.7

 

-1.5

 

Exports

368

 

285

 

271

 

-4.9

 

-26.4

 

Source: BTS TransBorder Freight Data, http://www.bts.gov/transborder/

Note: The value of all surface modes is not equal to the sum of truck, rail and pipeline modes.  The value of trade for all surface modes includes shipments made by truck, rail, pipeline, mail, foreign trade zones, other and unknown modes of transportation.  For additional detail refer to the TransBorder Freight Data "Sources and Reliability" statement: http://www.bts.gov/programs/international/transborder/tbdr; Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 3. March 2007 Surface Trade with Canada and Mexico Compared with March of Prior Years

 

                              Percent Change                            

Compared to March in…

Imports

Exports

Total Surface Trade

2006

3.8

 

0.3

 

2.3

 

2005

18.7

 

15.7

 

17.4

 

2004

24.6

 

23.1

 

24.0

 

2003

39.1

 

44.4

 

41.3

 

2002

52.4

 

53.8

 

53.0

 

2001

40.0

 

37.5

 

38.9

 

2000

38.3

 

26.9

 

33.2

 

1999

64.4

 

55.4

 

60.5

 

1998

85.1

 

55.2

 

71.0

 

1997

110.4

 

81.6

 

97.0

 

Source: BTS TransBorder Freight Data, http://www.bts.gov/transborder/

 

 

Table 4. U.S. Merchandise Trade with Canada by Surface Modes of Transportation

(millions of dollars)

Mode

 

March

2006

February

2007

March

2007

Percent Change     Feb. 2007 - Mar. 2007

Percent Change March

2006-2007

All Surface Modes

Imports

24,644

 

21,275

 

25,187

 

18.4

 

2.2

 

Exports

19,359

 

16.841

 

19,865

 

18.0

 

2.6

 

Total

44,002

 

38,116

 

45,053

 

18.2

 

2.4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Truck

Imports

13,522

 

11,709

 

13,737

 

17.3

 

1.6

 

Exports

15,238

 

13,281

 

15,306

 

15.2

 

0.4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rail

Imports

5,707

 

4,692

 

6,188

 

31.9

 

8.4

 

Exports

2,048

 

1,657

 

2,343

 

41.4

 

14.4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pipeline

Imports

4,378

 

3,960

 

4,282

 

8.1

 

-2.2

 

Exports

310

 

254

 

222

 

-12.4

 

-28.5

 

Source: BTS TransBorder Freight Data, http://www.bts.gov/transborder/

 

Note: The value of all surface modes is not equal to the sum of truck, rail and pipeline modes.  The value of trade for all surface modes includes shipments made by truck, rail, pipeline, mail, foreign trade zones, other and unknown modes of transportation.  For additional detail refer to the TransBorder Freight Data "Sources and Reliability" statement: http://www.bts.gov/programs/international/transborder/tbdr; Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding.

Table 5. Top 10 States Trading with Canada by Surface Modes of Transportation

Ranked by March 2007 Surface Trade Value

(millions of dollars)

Rank

State

March 2007

1

Michigan

7,488

 

2

Illinois

3,049

 

3

Ohio

2,975

 

4

New York

2,972

 

5

California

2,820

 

6

Texas

2,124

 

7

Washington

1,701

 

8

Pennsylvania

1,688

 

9

Indiana

1,646

 

10

Tennessee

1,395

 

Source: BTS TransBorder Freight Data, http://www.bts.gov/transborder/

 

 

 

Table 6. U.S. Merchandise Trade with Mexico by Surface Modes of Transportation

(millions of dollars)

Mode

 

March

2006

February

2007

March

2007

Percent Change     Feb. 2007 - Mar. 2007

Percent Change March

2006-2007

All Surface Modes

Imports

13,796

 

12,703

 

14,724

 

15.9

 

6.7

 

Exports

10,414

 

8,848

 

9,991

 

12.9

 

-4.1

 

Total

24,210

 

21,551

 

24,715

 

14.7

 

2.1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Truck

Imports

11,229

 

10,432

 

12,173

 

16.7

 

8.4

 

Exports

8,376

 

7,009

 

7,885

 

12.5

 

-5.9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rail

Imports

2,361

 

2,005

 

2,277

 

13.6

 

-3.5

 

Exports

1,508

 

1,433

 

1,676

 

17.0

 

11.1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pipeline

Imports

0

 

8

 

31

 

312.5

 

NA

 

Exports

58

 

31

 

49

 

56.1

 

-15.2

 

Source: BTS TransBorder Freight Data, http://www.bts.gov/transborder/

Note: The value of all surface modes is not equal to the sum of truck, rail and pipeline modes.  The value of trade for all surface modes includes shipments made by truck, rail, pipeline, mail, foreign trade zones, other and unknown modes of transportation.  For additional detail refer to the TransBorder Freight data "Sources and Reliability" statement: http://www.bts.gov/programs/international/transborder/tbdr; Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding.  NA – not applicable

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 7. Top 10 States Trading with Mexico by Surface Modes of Transportation

Ranked by March 2007 Surface Trade Value

(millions of dollars)

Rank

State

March 2007

1

Texas

7,473

 

2

California

4,245

 

3

Michigan

2,607

 

4

Arizona

1,022

 

5

Illinois

881

 

6

Ohio

599

 

7

Tennessee

571

 

8

Indiana

477

 

9

New York

442

 

10

North Carolina

439

 

Source: BTS TransBorder Freight Data, http://www.bts.gov/transborder/


 

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