Metro Detroit ranks 4th in nation for exports

[EuphoricOctopus]

July 11, 2013 at 1:52 pm

Metro Detroit ranks 4th in nation for exports

Michael Martinez
The Detroit News

Metro Detroit exports the fourth-highest amount of goods in the nation, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration.

Merchandise exports for the metro area totaled a record $55.4 billion, an increase of 12 percent from 2011 to 2012, data shows. Goods being moved in Michigan include: transportation equipment, machinery, computer and electronic products, electrical equipment and fabricated metal products.

Detroit trails only metro areas that include Houston, New York and Los Angeles. It’s directly ahead of metro Seattle, Miami and Chicago.

...

For the 1-10 metro areas click the link.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...#ixzz2YmMYf6IK

[KevinFromTexas]

Is there a list of all the cities?

The data came out for Austin, too.


http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/ne...-record-9.html

Jul 11, 2013, 2:34pm CDT
Austin-area exports hit record; What we send — and where

Sarah Drake
Contributing Editor-
Austin Business Journal

Merchandise exports from the Austin metropolitan area reached a record $9 billion in 2012, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration.

That's a 4 percent increase — or $350 million — from 2011, helping the area remain a top metro for exports last year.

Top exports from the Austin area included computer and electronics products, machinery, electrical equipment and chemicals. South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Malaysia and China were leading destinations for Austin exports.

[dc_denizen]

It would nice to see export valued added by metro area. Ports and border city locations color this.

Not surprised that Detroit is high however.

Here are the rankings (Brookings 2010) by jobs, which might be a proxy for value add.

Export Related Jobs and the Share of Export Related Jobs out of Metropolitan Employment, 2008

columns: (1) Metro (2) Jobs (3) Rank, jobs (4) share of jobs in exporting (5) rank, percentage of jobs from exports


Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 560,475 1 9.8% 23
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA 481,946 2 5.6% 87
Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI 397,924 3 8.7% 43
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX 303,514 4 10.0% 21
Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI 239,910 5 12.5% 7
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX 235,193 6 8.9% 38
Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH 223,070 7 8.9% 37
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 212,157 8 22.7% 1
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD 201,634 9 7.1% 65
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 196,000 10 10.7% 16

[Onn]

I think the reason for Detroit being near the top of the list probably has to do with the car industry. Because let's face it, it is a global business. Even if the Big 3 aren't exporting cars made in Detroit, they are exporting the parts to make the cars someplace else. There are countless auto suppliers here from all over the world. Good news, nothing wrong with a strong export economy!

[jaunis]

Thanks for the link. It's always good to hear some positive news from Detroit

[Evergrey]

[suburbanite]

Do you know how much of the exports that aren't shipped to Canada or Mexico go through the St Lawrence Seaway? I imagine it's probably more profitable now to ship by rail to Newark or Boston first, but I've always been curious about the cargo and destinations of those Great Lakes freighters.

[hudkina]

A lot of the major ocean-going freighters are too large for the St. Lawrence Seaway, so I would assume most exports leave the city via rail. In fact, as a person who lives south of the city, I know it's true. In any given week, I'll randomly get stopped by a southbound train at least two or three times. And I'm not talking a little five car commuter rail train that whizzes by in 30 seconds. I'm talking about a 15 MPH 2 mile long train that blocks the intersection for a good 20+ minutes if you're lucky. Sometimes it will be dead-stopped because it's loading up.

[vid]

I live in a St Lawrence port city, by a rail yard. The amount of rail traffic is staggering, probably 10 to 15 miles of freight trains per day just on the CP line. (The CN line far to the north of us carries at least as much.)

Detroit and Windsor also share a lot of truck traffic though. Most of the vehicles going over the Ambassador Bridge are transports.

[LMich]

Originally Posted by vid

Detroit and Windsor also share a lot of truck traffic though. Most of the vehicles going over the Ambassador Bridge are transports.

I was going to say that I would not at all be surprised if the majority (or at least a plurality) of exports from the region (mostly assembled autos, auto parts, software, etc...and maybe not by tonnage but by value) were by truck. The Port of Detroit is actually a net importer of goods in terms of value.

I know the auto plant here in downtown Lansing lost its direct rail connection when they demolished the old one and built the new one next door. Every assembled care is trucked out of the place, at least inititally, so I imagine the auto companies actually rely less on rail than some might assume.

BTW, I see another export post was made for another city, and quite frankly, this was a national report, so I'll probably be merging these into a 2012 export thread, or someone else can if I don't get around to it fast enough.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

Do you know how much of the exports that aren't shipped to Canada or Mexico go through the St Lawrence Seaway? I imagine it's probably more profitable now to ship by rail to Newark or Boston first, but I've always been curious about the cargo and destinations of those Great Lakes freighters.

Most Great Lakes (and Mississippi River) shipping is bulk cargo, not manufactured goods. Grain, iron ore, salt, coal, etc.

Some of these can be exported, but generally the cost of oceanic shipping is greater than any cost premium from sourcing locally, so there isn't much exporting going on.

[MolsonExport]

the 401 Highway, between Detroit and Toronto, is allegedly the busiest truck freeway on the planet. I drive it 1-2 times/month, and fuck it is full of truck.

[hudkina]

Originally Posted by LMich

Every assembled care is trucked out of the place, at least inititally, so I imagine the auto companies actually rely less on rail than some might assume.

I would bet that they are only trucked as far as a local transfer point. There's one between Davis Hwy and Billwood Hwy near I-69. It would be uneconomical to rely on a small truck to transfer vehicles across the continent.

[LMich]

Originally Posted by hudkina

I would bet that they are only trucked as far as a local transfer point. There's one between Davis Hwy and Billwood Hwy near I-69. It would be uneconomical to rely on a small truck to transfer vehicles across the continent.

From what I hear from workers, locally, not even half the autos from LDT (Lansing Delta Township) are shipped out of adjacent CN Autoport (the railyard you see on the aerial), and even fewer Cadillacs made at LGR (Lansing Grand River), downtown, are shipped across town to the yard. I do imagine somewhere along the line cars get on the rails, but GM relies on them less than they once did and more on truck shipping.

[Unity77]

I'm a bit surprised that Minneapolis made the top 10.

[vid]

A lot of the rail traffic in my city is car carriers, one or two times a day and about a hundred cars long each (and every one is carrying maybe 8 cars?). A lot of cars are being shipped by rail.

Both directions too. Asian cars heading east, European and American cars heading west.