Readers Question: What are current US Freight Flows?

04 Feb 2023 by rate3

One of our subscribers asked us a question on the current state of US Freight Flows. That is a good question, which, however, are not widely covered by financial medias and not closely watched by traders.

The reason is that most stock market players are focused on corporate bottom lines, in which freight flows are supposed to be accounted for. Another reason is that this type of data (accumulated and processed by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics) is difficult and time consuming to gather, which leads to significant delays of its releases (f.e. the latest report on the BLS site - North America Transborder Freight - is for Nov 2022).

Here's its snap-shot:

Truck freights: USD 78.6B (+7 percent from Nov 2021 and -5.7 from Oct 2022). Rail freights: 16.5B (+0.2 percent from Nov 2021 and -4.0 from Oct 2022). Freight between the U.S. and Canada totaled $63.4 billion, up 3.3% from November 2021. Freight between the U.S. and Mexico totaled $62.4 billion, up 6.3% from November 2021. Trucks moved $78.6 billion of freight (+7.0 percent, yearly basis). Railways moved $16.5 billion of freight (+0.2). Pipelines moved $11.0 billion of freight (+7.4). Vessels moved $9.3 billion of freight (-3.7).

Overall, the value of oil increased by 6.6% in November 2022 compared to November 2021, which contributed to year-over-year increases in the value of freight moved by pipeline with Canada and vessel with Mexico.

NOTE: Chicago, Port Huron, and Minneapolis are the top pipeline connection regions for U.S. energy flows with Canada. Port of Houston, Arthur, and Texas City are the top water port connections for U.S. energy flows with Mexico.

Hope, it's helpful.