March NAFTA truck freight up from previous month

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics reports that in March trucks moved more than 63% of March NAFTA freight – with trains, planes, ships and pipelines picking up the rest. Transborder freight was up compared to February, despite concerns over disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The value of freight hauled across the borders increased by 3% compared with February, when NAFTA freight went down by 1.2% compared with the previous month. Valued at nearly $99 billion, total March NAFTA freight rebounded from a 12-month low set in February.

March NAFTA ended a short-lived year-to-year winning streak that was established in February.

Compared to March 2019, freight was down 7.9% after a 1.9% year-to-year increase in February and a 1.5% increase in January. March NAFTA’s year-to-year decrease is the largest since July 2016 when transborder freight dropped by 10%.

In 2019, NAFTA freight decreased by 0.8% compared to the previous year, with 63% of that freight carried by trucks. Historically, NAFTA freight experiences a month-to-month surge in March. This year’s decrease sets 2020 NAFTA behind compared to this time last year.

Trucks carried nearly $63 billion of the nearly $99 billion of cross-border imports and exports in March, up 3.1% from February but down 7.1% compared with March 2019. However, truck NAFTA freight for March is still up more than 9% compared to the end of 2019. It is worth noting that cross-border freight typically drops significantly in the last two months of the year.

Month-to-month, Canada truck freight increased by 2.4%, whereas Mexico freight increased by 3.5%. Top truck commodities were computers and parts, motor vehicles and parts, electrical machinery, plastics, and measuring/testing instruments.

March NAFTA freight totaled $98.8 billion, up by nearly $3 billion from the previous month but a decrease of more than $8 billion from March 2019.

Air freight accounted for the largest increase at 14% after increasing by 3.5% in February. Pipeline experienced the only decrease at 10.6% after a similar decrease the previous month.

More than 57% of U.S.-Canada March NAFTA freight was moved by trucks, followed by rail at more than 16%. Of the more than $50 billion of freight moving in and out of Mexico, trucks carried nearly 70% of the loads.