Office of Operations Freight Management and Operations

Freight Facts and Figures 2012

Figure 3-2. Top 25 Foreign-Trade Gateways by Value: 2010

Transportation facilities that move international trade into and out of the United States demonstrate the importance of all modes and intermodal combinations to global connectivity. The top 25 foreign-trade gateways measured by value of shipments are comprised of 11 water ports, 5 land-border crossings, and 9 air gateways.

Figure 3-2. U.S. map showing the top 25 foreign-trade gateways for 2010

[JPEG 3.94MB, PDF 1.92MB]

Data represented in the figure.

Table in Excel format

Billions of dollars

Gateway Type Rank Exports Imports Total
Los Angeles, CA Water 1 33.9 145.7 179.6
New York, NY Water 2 46.6 128.7 175.3
JFK International, NY Air 3 81.9 77.7 159.6
Long Beach, CA Water 4 31.7 114.2 145.9
Houston, TX Water 5 70.4 60.1 130.5
Laredo, TX Land 6 57.5 63.8 121.3
Detroit, MI Land 7 62.8 48.9 111.6
Chicago, IL Air 8 35.3 75.3 110.7
Los Angeles International, CA Air 9 36.9 40.5 77.4
Port Huron, MI Land 10 34.7 38.7 73.5
Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY Land 11 37.4 35.4 72.8
Savannah, GA Water 12 24.3 34.5 58.8
New Orleans, LA Air 13 22.7 35.0 57.7
El Paso, TX  Land 14 24.0 31.8 55.8
Charleston, SC Water 15 19.4 30.9 50.2
San Francisco International, CA Air 16 27.4 22.6 49.9
Miami International, FL Air 17 34.5 15.3 49.9
Norfolk, VA Water 18 22.9 26.4 49.3
Anchorage, AK Air 19 9.8 34.9 44.7
Seattle, WA Water 20 10.9 31.4 42.3
Baltimore, MD Water 21 14.3 27.1 41.4
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Air 22 16.9 24.1 41.0
Oakland, CA Water 23 15.5 24.9 40.4
Atlanta, GA Air 24 12.1 22.1 34.1
New Orleans, LA Water 25 18.2 13.6 31.8

Notes:

All data: Trade levels reflect the mode of transportation as a shipment enters or exits at a border port. Flows through individual ports are based on reported data collected from U.S. trade documents. Trade does not include low-value shipments. (In general, these are imports valued at less than $1,250 and exports that are valued at less than $2,500).

Air: Data for all air gateways include a low level (generally less than 2%-3% of the total value) of small user-fee airports located in the same region. Air gateways not identified by airport name (e.g., Chicago, IL, and others) include major airport(s) in that geographic area in addition to small regional airports. In addition, due to U.S. Census Bureau confidentiality regulations, data for courier operations are included in the airport totals for JFK International Airport, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and Anchorage.

Source:

Air: U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade Division, special tabulation, September 2012.

Water: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Navigation Data Center, personal communication, as cited in U.S. Department of Transportation, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics, table 1-51, available at http://www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_statistics/ as of October 2012.

Land: U.S. Department of Transportation, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, North American Transborder Freight Data, September 2012.

 


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