All transportation modes except air carried less cross-border freight by value in June 2016 compared to June 2015 resulting in a 6.4 percent decrease to $92.7 billion in the total current dollar value of freight moved. June was the 18th consecutive month that the total value of US freight with North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico declined from the same month of the previous year, according to the TransBorder Freight Data released today by the US Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
The value of freight carried on modes other than air declined: rail 4.4 percent; truck 5.8 percent; pipeline 15.6 percent; and vessel 19.7 percent. A drop in the price of crude oil played a key role in the large declines in the dollar value of products shipped by vessel and pipeline.
Trucks carried 65.4 percent of US-NAFTA freight and continued to be the most heavily utilized mode for moving goods to and from both US-NAFTA partners. Trucks accounted for $31.2 billion of the $49.2 billion of imports (63.5 percent) and $29.4 billion of the $43.5 billion of exports (67.5 percent).
Rail remained the second largest mode by value, moving 15.2 percent of all US-NAFTA freight, followed by vessel, 6.0 percent; pipeline, 4.5 percent; and air, 4.0 percent. The surface transportation modes of truck, rail and pipeline carried 85.1 percent of the total value of US-NAFTA freight flows.
From June 2015 to June 2016, the value of US-Canada freight flows fell 7.2 percent to $48.2 billion as all modes of transportation except air carried a lower value of US-Canada freight than a year earlier. During the same period, the value of US-Mexico freight declined 5.5 percent to $44.5 billion as all modes of transportation except air carried a lower value of US-Mexico freight than a year earlier.
In June 2016, the top commodity category transported between the US and Canada by all modes was vehicles and parts, of which $5.6 billion, or 57.0 percent, moved by truck and $4.0 billion, or 40.7 percent, moved by rail. The top commodity category transported between the US and Mexico by all modes in June 2016 was electrical machinery, of which $8.0 billion, or 91.2 percent, moved by truck.