South Dakota: Export Trading Relationships in the Ports-to-Plains Region

This data is designed to give a measurable picture of the role the Ports-to-Plains Corridor plays in the movement of freight to Mexico and Canada and domestically north through the other eight states of the Ports-to-Plains region.  It will be clear that this role is not just for communities along the backbone corridor, but is based on the probability that as freight moves on a north-south axis through the region, at some point, it will travel on the backbone corridor.  These numbers address only the goods that are initiated within South Dakota and do not address the intra-state movements, the movements of goods through the region from other states, the movement of imports, nor the goods that move through the region between Mexico and Canada.

By 2015, South Dakota’s domestic exports by truck to states in the Ports-to-Plains region are projected to grow 161% from 2002 reaching a value of more than $3.9 billion.  Nebraska ($1.45 billion), Oklahoma ($1.1 billion) and Texas ($454 million) are the largest domestic export markets.

Internationally, in 2011, Canada was the destination for almost $463 million of South Dakota exports by truck.  That market has grown by almost 107% since 2004.  On the northern border, the border crossings of Sweetgrass MT, Wild Horse MT, Raymond MT and Portal ND are used to evaluate the role of Ports-to-Plains on these total truck values.  Exports through those border crossings have grown nearly 94% since 2004. The Canada data breaks this down to the specific border crossings and provides a top ten listing for the commodities moved by surface transportation to Canada as well as similar lists with the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

South Dakota exported a total of over $140 million of goods to Mexico by truck.  This market grew by over 36% since 2004. The role of the border crossings of Del Rio, Eagle Pass and Laredo are summarized to evaluate the role of Ports-to-Plains on these total truck values.  The included data summarizes this role under PTP.  In 2011, South Dakota exports by truck through these three border crossings accounted for over 64% of the total truck exports with Mexico.  The included data breaks this down to the specific border crossings and provides a top ten listing for the commodities moved by surface transportation to Mexico as well as similar lists with the Mexico states of Coahuila, Nuevo Laredo and Tamaulipas. 

To see the full data, look at the information below.

The international trade data comes from Bureau of Transportation Statistics North American Transborder Freight Data (http://www.bts.gov/programs/international/transborder/TBDR_QA.html).  domestic data is from the Freight Analysis Framework by Center for Transportation Analysis in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory under funding from the Federal Highway Administration (http://faf.ornl.gov/fafweb/Extraction2.aspx).

Link to PDF of Data

South Dakota Trade Relationships 2004-2011 from Ports-To-Plains Blog