NAFTA starts 2018 with 15th consecutive monthly increase

March 30, 2018

Tyson Fisher

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The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics reports that in January trucks moved nearly 63 percent of NAFTA freight – with trains, planes, ships and pipelines picking up the rest. All five modes experienced an increase in freight year to year for the fourth consecutive month.

The value of freight hauled across the borders rose 3.4 percent compared with December, when freight dropped by more than 7 percent from the previous month. Compared to January 2017, freight was up nearly 10 percent. This marks the 15th consecutive month of year-to-year increases.

March 2017 had the largest month-to-month increase (16 percent) since March 2011, when NAFTA freight was up more than 22 percent compared to February 2011. NAFTA freight declined by nearly 11 percent in July 2017, the largest decline for the year.



In March 2017, the index reached more than $100 billion for the first time since October 2014 before going back below that mark in April. That landmark was revisited in October and maintained through November before dipping below the $100 billion mark again in December.

August, November and December were the only months to have a year-to-year increase in 2016, at 0.7 percent, 3.3 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. August was the first year-to-year increase since December 2014, when freight increased by more than 5 percent.

Trucks carried nearly $61 billion of the $96.6 billion of imports and exports in January. Year-to-year, Canada truck freight increased by 6.2 percent and Mexico freight rose by 13.6 percent. Top truck commodities were computers and parts, electrical machinery, motor vehicles/parts, plastics and measuring/testing instruments.

Freight totaled $96.648 billion, up more than $3 billion from the previous month and an increase of nearly $9 billion from January 2017.

Pipeline freight accounted for the largest increase at 34.1 percent after an increase of 15.3 percent in December. Trucks accounted for an increase of 10.2 percent. Truck freight experienced increases of 5.4 in December and 8.1 percent in November.

More than 55 percent of U.S.-Canada freight was moved by trucks, followed by rail at more than 15 percent. U.S.-Mexico freight went up by 11 percent compared with January 2017. Of the $47.741 billion of freight moving in and out of Mexico, trucks carried more than 70 percent of the loads.