Cross-border freight in June sets all-time high by value

A second consecutive monthly boost sent the value of cross-border freight in June to an all-time high as North American freight continues to rebound from huge hits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

Compared to June 2020, cross-border freight rose by more than 41% after a 94% increase in May and an 85% increase in April, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. May’s year-to-year increase was the largest by percentage since the U.S. Department of Transportation began compiling numbers in 1993. Conversely, last May North American freight dropped by nearly 49%. That was the largest annual decrease on record.

The value of freight hauled across national borders increased by nearly 7% compared with May, when cross-border freight went down by more than 1% compared with the previous month. In the past 20 years, cross-border freight has not displayed any pattern in June compared to the previous month. Not counting 2020 during the pandemic, 50% of June freight has gone up since 2001, with half going down.

Like every other mode, trucking cross-border freight in June was up.

Trucks carried more than $72 billion of the nearly $116 billion of imports and exports in June, a more than 6% increase from May. Compared to a year ago, truck freight jumped up by nearly 28%.

Month-to-month, Canada truck freight increased by more than 5%, whereas Mexico truck freight went up by more than 7%. Top truck commodities were computer-related machinery/parts (up 7%), electrical machinery/equipment and parts (up 6%), vehicles other than railway (up 9%), plastics/articles (up 7%) and measuring/testing instruments (up 7.5%).

June’s cross-border freight total of nearly $116 billion is up by more than $7 billion from the previous month, and it increased by nearly $34 billion from June 2020. June set a new record high for North American freight by value, previously set in March at nearly $115 billion, indicating a return to a pre-pandemic economy.

All modes experienced a month-to-month increase. Pipeline freight experienced the largest increase at more than 20%, followed by airfreight (6%) and trucking.

More than 55% of U.S.-Canada June cross-border freight was moved by trucks, followed by rail at nearly 16%. Of the more than $57 billion of freight moving in and out of Mexico, trucks carried more than 69% of the loads. LL