Wednesday, June 29, 2016

A US Government Database with Transportation Information for Chemicals

The US Census Bureau and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics have partnered to create the Commodity Flow Survey database.  This database has information on the flow of goods, including chemical goods, in the United States.  Click here to go to a website from which this database can be accessed.

The database gives the values of shipments, the tons shipped, and the ton miles for several categories of goods including these chemically-related categories: basic chemicals; chemical products and preparations; and plastics and rubber.

The following three tables provide data from the database for these chemically-related categories:

basic chemicals 2012
mode
value
tons
ton miles
value per ton

truck
 $  186,106,000,000
182,168,000
45,771,000,000
 $    1,022

rail
 $     57,198,000,000
87,867,000
72,691,000,000
 $        651

water
 $     32,882,000,000
45,384,000
19,789,000,000
 $        725

pipeline
 $     19,374,000,000
24,655,000
na
 $        786

air
 $       3,175,000,000
189,000
246,000,000
 $  16,799

totals
 $  298,735,000,000
340,263,000
138,497,000,000
 $        878


chemical products 2012
mode
value
tons
ton miles
value per ton

truck
 $  297,815,000,000
94,925,000
36,332,000,000
 $    3,137

rail
 $     10,593,000,000
6,460,000
6,528,000,000
 $    1,640

air
 $       4,220,000,000
139,000
186,000,000
 $  30,360

totals
 $  312,628,000,000
101,524,000
43,046,000,000
 $    3,079


plastics & rubber 2012
mode
value
tons
ton miles
value per ton

truck
 $  493,180,000,000
171,062,000
90,106,000,000
 $    2,883

rail
 $  426,582,000,000
124,202,000
54,373,000,000
 $    3,435

air
 $     59,702,000,000
46,034,000
35,370,000,000
 $    1,297

totals
 $  979,464,000,000
341,298,000
179,849,000,000
 $    2,870


From these tables, the total value sum of basic chemicals, chemicals products, and plastics and rubber shipped in 2012 is $1.6 trillion.  (Value amounts represent the net sales value of the goods shipped.)  The value per ton computations in the tables suggest, as an average, the relative pricing power of basic chemicals versus chemical products versus plastics and rubber.

This Census Bureau/Bureau of Transportation Statistics database should be of use to chemical shippers.



No comments:

Post a Comment