LOGISTICS INFRASTRUCTURE
transportationreport
It’s the exports, stupid!
Over the long haul, exports will be the engine that drives the
U.S. economy. But without the equipment properly positioned to get
the goods from origin to port, the nation’s exporters could lose out.
IT’S THE DREAM OF EVERY U.S. POLITICIAN AND
globally minded businessman: trillions of dollars of exports
pouring into U.S. ports for lading onto ships bound for
eager foreign hands.
The dream may be closer to reality than some think.
Between 2009 and 2011, the total value of U.S. exports rose at
an annualized rate of 15. 6 percent, ahead of the 14.9-percent
annual growth needed to meet President’s Obama’s
goal (as stated in his 2010 State of the Union address)
of doubling export values to about $3.15 trillion by
the end of 2014, according to the Commerce
Department’s International Trade
Administration (ITA).
In 2011, U.S. export value hit a
record $2.1 trillion, and total export
value is expected to exceed $2 trillion again in 2012, according to
International Trade Administration
data. Export value in March totaled
$186.8 billion, a 2.9-percent increase
over February totals. Through the
first quarter, export value totaled
$549.2 billion, an 8.2-percent rise
from year-earlier levels.
The beat has continued in the past
few months, albeit with some recent
weakness as the crisis in Europe and
the slowing of China’s growth have cooled U.S. export
demand. Growth in export values fell 0.8 percent in April
to $182.9 billion, after hitting $186.8 billion in March,
which was an all-time record for any month since numbers
were kept.
Since 2009, exports have supported the creation of 1. 2
million American jobs, the ITA said. The administration’s
objective is for exports to support 2 million jobs by the end
of 2014.
For President Obama, whose stewardship of the economy
will likely be the central theme of the upcoming election
campaign, the numbers are welcome news, particularly so
since his January 2010 clarion call was initially met with
skepticism. For example, a survey taken later that year of
U.S. high-tech executives found that most believed the goal
to be unachievable because it was too costly for companies
to manufacture in the United States.
A jaundiced observer might note that the government’s data excludes tonnage and shipments, and is
skewed toward a metric—values—that is easily
influenced by currency fluctuations. A weaker dollar makes U.S. exports less expensive and more competitive in international markets.
In addition, one of the most valuable U.S. exports last year was energy, as much a reflection of rising
world oil prices as of the nation’s
competitiveness.
Still, even when volume figures are
put into the data hopper, the outlook
for U.S. exports appears bright.
William L. Ralph, maritime economist at R.K. Johns & Associates, a
New York-based maritime consultancy, said at a conference in
Norfolk, Va., in April that he expects
containerized U.S. exports to grow 8 to 9 percent this year
as strength in Latin American markets—particularly Brazil
and Chile—as well as in China offsets weakness in Europe,
the destination for 20 percent of containerized goods moving off the East Coast.
Business executives say they are experiencing solid
demand from traditional markets outside of Europe. There
are also stories about emerging demand for unconventional
items from places such as Saudi Arabia, which is importing
tens of thousands of containers of water, and Iran, where
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