Office of Operations Freight Management and Operations

Figure 2-6: Top 25 U.S. Foreign Trade Freight Gateways by Value: 2003 ($billions)

The top 25 foreign trade gateways measured by value of shipments are comprised of 8 airports, 11 water ports, and 6 border crossings. At these 25 gateways, imports comprised 64 percent of the total. Ports with very large shares of imports relative to exports are mostly water ports (such as the ports of Los Angeles, CA, Long Beach, CA, and Tacoma, WA). Anchorage International Airport also has very high proportion of imports relative to exports

See paragraph above and table below for explanation of Figure 2-6

Data represented in the figure
Table in Excel format

Gateway Type Rank Exports Imports Total
Port of Los Angeles, CAWater1 16.9 105.2 122.1
JFK International Airport, NYAir2 46.6 65.3 111.9
Port of Detroit, MILand3 54.5 47.3 101.9
Port of New York, NY and NJWater4 24.3 76.9 101.2
Port of Long Beach, CAWater5 17.2 78.7 95.9
Port of Laredo, TXLand6 32.4 46.4 78.8
Los Angeles International Airport, CAAir7 32.6 31.2 63.8
Port of Huron, MILand8 22.7 39.6 62.3
Port of Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NYLand9 27.4 32.0 59.4
Chicago, ILAir10 20.6 33.7 54.3
Port of Houston, TXWater11 21.4 28.5 49.9
San Francisco International Airport, CAAir12 20.6 26.1 46.6
Port of Charleston, SCWater13 13.4 26.0 39.4
Port of El Paso, TXLand14 16.7 22.5 39.2
Port of Norfolk Harbor, VAWater15 11.0 18.5 29.5
New Orleans, LAAir16 13.7 13.7 27.4
Port of Tacoma, WAWater17 5.2 21.1 26.3
Port of Baltimore, MDWater18 5.7 20.3 26.0
Port of Oakland, CAWater19 7.8 17.4 25.1
Dallas-Fort Worth, TXAir20 11.4 12.2 23.6
Port of Seattle, WAWater21 5.7 17.4 23.1
Miami International Airport, FLAir22 14.0 8.8 22.7
Anchorage, AKAir23 5.6 16.5 22.1
Port of Savannah, GAWater24 7.4 13.9 21.3
Port of Otay Mesa Station, CALand25 8.3 11.4 19.7

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics 2004 (Washington, DC: forthcoming)

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