Montana: Export Trading Relationships in the Ports-to-Plains Region

This is the fourth of nine articles that provide a state by state look at the exports by truck along the Ports-to-Plains Corridor.  This data looks at the state of Montana. Montana demonstrates significant growth when its exports by truck throughout the Ports-to-Plains region are evaluated.  Domestic exports along the corridor continue to grow with a projection to more than double by 2015. Exports to Canada and Mexico have also grown significantly.  The role of the Ports-to-Plains backbone corridors continues to increase.

By 2015, Montana’s domestic exports by truck to states in the Ports-to-Plains region are projected to grow 156% from 2002 almost reaching a value of almost $1.88 billion.  Wyoming ($1.3 billion), North Dakota ($247 million), South Dakota ($164 million) and Colorado ($103 million) are the largest domestic export markets.  Between 2002 and 2007 domestic truck exports within the region already increased by 86% to $1.4 billion.

Internationally, Canada was the destination for over $431 million of Montana exports by truck in 2011.  That amount  has increased by 160% 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 even faster than the total truck trade from Montana to Canada. While total truck exports with Canada from Montana have increased by 160%, these border crossings have seen over a 218% increase in value since 2004.  The market share of Montana truck trade exports to Canada using the Ports-to-Plains region has grown more than 14% since 2004.  In 2004 65% of Montana’s exported value passed through these border crossings. In 2011, that market share had grown to almost 80%. 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.

In 2011, Montana exported a total of $20.7 million of goods to Mexico by truck.  This market grew, however, by over 450% 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, Montana exports by truck through these three border crossings accounted for almost 58% of its total truck exports to Mexico.  The share of total exports by truck using these border crossing has increased by 19.4%. 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.

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 Montana 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.

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