Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
Printable Version

5-6
Weight of U.S. International Merchandise Trade by Mode of Transportation: 2007

Thousands of short tons

Excel | CSV

  Exports Modal % Imports Modal % Total trade Total modal %
Total 618,901 100.0 1,334,117 100.0 1,953,018 100.0
Water a 469,761 75.9 1,047,791 78.5 1,517,552 77.7
Air 3,719 0.6 4,753 0.4 8,472 0.4
Truckb 96,015 15.5 97,069 7.3 193,085 9.9
Railb 42,465 6.9 93,050 7.0 135,515 6.9
Pipelineb 5,316 0.9 90,569 6.8 95,885 4.9
Other, unknown, & miscellaneousb 1,624 0.3 885 0.1 2,509 0.1

a The weight data for water transportation vary from those officially reported by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, because the data in this table exclude intransit shipments (merchandise shipped from one foreign country to another via a U.S. port but not part of U.S. official merchandise trade). BTS uses U.S. Census Bureau trade-based data to allow for a complete modal comparison among the different freight transportation modes. b BTS estimates the weight of exports for truck, rail, pipeline, and other and unknown based on value-to-weight ratios from the import data by country, mode of transportation, and two-digit HS commodity code. This is necessary because weights for exports by surface modes are not currently collected.

Notes: Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding. Excludes intransit data (merchandise shipped from one foreign country to another via a U.S. port). Imports—Excludes imports valued at less than $1,250. Import value is based on U.S. general imports, customs value basis. Exports—Excludes exports valued at less than $2,500. Export value is FAS (free alongside ship) and represents the value of exports at the port of export, including the transaction price and inland freight, insurance, and other charges.

Sources: Water and air—U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade Division, FT920 U.S. Merchandise Trade: Selected Highlights, December 2007, available at http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/ft920_index.html as of October 2008. Truck, rail, pipeline and other, unknown, and miscellaneous—U.S. Department of Transportation, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, TransBorder Freight Data; and special calculation, October 2008.



RITA's privacy policies and procedures do not necessarily apply to external web sites. We suggest contacting these sites directly for information on their data collection and distribution policies.