US-Canada Freight Trade Posts Double Digit Drop

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From 2014 to 2015, the value of U.S.-Canada freight flows fell 12.6% to $575.2 billion, according to new U.S. Transportation Department figures.

Trucks carried 58.3% of the value of the freight to and from Canada, followed by rail at 15.7%. The truck freight value was a 0.8 percentage point decrease from 2005 but an increase of 4.5 percentage points from the year before.

Michigan led all states in freight with Canada in 2015 with $69.1 billion.

The top commodity category transported between the U.S. and Canada in 2015 was vehicles and vehicle parts, valued at $103 billion with 60% moved by truck.

Overall, all five major transportation modes, carried 7.2% less freight value  between the U.S. and its neighbors of Canada and Mexico last year than in 2014.

Of all the modes, trucking saw the smallest year-over-year drop in the value of commodities moved, down 0.4%. Air fell 1.8%, rail declined 7.1%, vessel tumbled 29.7% and pipeline plummeted 39.4%.

The decline in the value cross-border freight from 2014 to 2015 was almost entirely due to drops in crude oil and petroleum prices. The value of petroleum-related commodity shipments dropped almost 40% year-over-year, while the value of other freight dropped just 0.9%.

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