Form the US census bureau, here are imports and exports of goods by end-use category and commodity for September 2008. It is interesting to see where the trade deficit is concentrated.
September | |||
(In millions of dollars) | 2008 | Net | |
IMPORTS | EXPORTS | Exports | |
Total, Balance of Payments Basis | 177,677 | 108,078 | (69,599.00) |
Net Adjustments | 1,461 | -459 | (1,920.00) |
Total, Census Basis | 176,216 | 108,537 | (67,679.00) |
Foods, feeds, and beverages | 7,604 | 9,101 | 1,497.00 |
Fish and shellfish | 1,221 | 357 | (864.00) |
Wine, beer, and related products | 719 | 120 | (599.00) |
Alcoholic beverages, excluding wine | 477 | 112 | (365.00) |
Green coffee | 327 | (327.00) | |
Fruits, frozen juices | 840 | 586 | (254.00) |
Vegetables | 678 | 446 | (232.00) |
Food oils, oilseeds | 423 | 198 | (225.00) |
Bakery products | 543 | 345 | (198.00) |
Tea, spices, etc. | 108 | (108.00) | |
Cocoa beans | 33 | (33.00) | |
Other foods | 752 | 733 | (19.00) |
Nonagricultural foods, etc. | 69 | 95 | 26.00 |
Dairy products and eggs | 143 | 254 | 111.00 |
Feedstuff and foodgrains | 366 | 495 | 129.00 |
Sorghum, barley, oats | 156 | 156.00 | |
Rice | 202 | 202.00 | |
Nuts | 143 | 346 | 203.00 |
Meat products | 670 | 1,309 | 639.00 |
Wheat | 964 | 964.00 | |
Soybeans | 1,019 | 1,019.00 | |
Cane and beet sugar | 93 | 1,365 | 1,272.00 |
Industrial supplies and materials | 65,666 | 33,307 | (32,359.00) |
Crude oil | 26,548 | 117 | (26,431.00) |
Petroleum products, other | 4,974 | 2,164 | (2,810.00) |
Gas-natural | 2,564 | 513 | (2,051.00) |
Natural gas liquids | 1,828 | 267 | (1,561.00) |
Fuel oil | 3,636 | 2,310 | (1,326.00) |
Iron and steel mill products | 2,255 | 1,160 | (1,095.00) |
Tobacco, waxes, etc. | 576 | 74 | (502.00) |
Aluminum and alumina | 1,118 | 761 | (357.00) |
Electric energy | 431 | 80 | (351.00) |
Shingles, wallboard | 679 | 350 | (329.00) |
Iron and steel products, other | 937 | 613 | (324.00) |
Chemicals-fertilizers | 1,891 | 1,576 | (315.00) |
Coal and fuels, other | 571 | 266 | (305.00) |
Nuclear fuel materials | 472 | 204 | (268.00) |
Other industrial supplies | 2,043 | 1,814 | (229.00) |
Nickel | 214 | (214.00) | |
Nontextile floor tiles | 221 | 41 | (180.00) |
Zinc | 135 | (135.00) | |
Nonmetallic minerals | 198 | 64 | (134.00) |
Agric. industry-unmanufactured | 664 | 533 | (131.00) |
Finished textile supplies | 307 | 196 | (111.00) |
Tapes, audio and visual | 142 | 42 | (100.00) |
Tin | 100 | (100.00) | |
Mineral supplies-manufactured | 509 | 432 | (77.00) |
Wood supplies, manufactured | 195 | 120 | (75.00) |
Chemicals-inorganic | 752 | 681 | (71.00) |
Finished metal shapes | 1,486 | 1,434 | (52.00) |
Metallurgical grade coal | 744 | 710 | (34.00) |
Precious metals, other | 752 | 721 | (31.00) |
Copper | 570 | 545 | (25.00) |
Hair, waste materials | 69 | 59 | (10.00) |
Industrial rubber products | 295 | 293 | (2.00) |
Lumber | 376 | 375 | (1.00) |
Leather and furs | 53 | 72 | 19.00 |
Agric. farming-unmanufactured | 171 | 196 | 25.00 |
Glass-plate, sheet, etc. | 94 | 120 | 26.00 |
Synthetic rubber--primary | 233 | 287 | 54.00 |
Manmade cloth | 448 | 523 | 75.00 |
Cotton fiber cloth | 113 | 238 | 125.00 |
Hides and skins | 11 | 192 | 181.00 |
Steelmaking materials | 1,091 | 1,281 | 190.00 |
Pulpwood and woodpulp | 354 | 681 | 327.00 |
Nonferrous metals, other | 359 | 687 | 328.00 |
Chemicals-organic | 1,724 | 2,462 | 738.00 |
Cotton, raw | 6 | 790 | 784.00 |
Newsprint | 210 | 1,101 | 891.00 |
Nonmonetary gold | 550 | 1,642 | 1,092.00 |
Chemicals-other, n.e.c. | 799 | 2,001 | 1,202.00 |
Plastic materials | 1,198 | 2,518 | 1,320.00 |
Capital goods, except automotive | 30,512 | 34,591 | 4,079.00 |
Telecommunications equipment | 4,003 | 2,761 | (1,242.00) |
Generators, accessories | 1,825 | 956 | (869.00) |
Drilling & oilfield equipment | 1,615 | 1,007 | (608.00) |
Electric apparatus | 2,970 | 2,491 | (479.00) |
Photo, service industry machinery | 1,206 | 884 | (322.00) |
Pulp and paper machinery | 462 | 244 | (218.00) |
Metalworking machine tools | 798 | 631 | (167.00) |
Wood, glass, plastic | 494 | 414 | (80.00) |
Textile, sewing machines | 130 | 118 | (12.00) |
Spacecraft, excluding military | 1 | 2 | 1.00 |
Commercial vessels, other | 6 | 20 | 14.00 |
Business machines and equipment | 409 | 428 | 19.00 |
Vessels, except scrap | 0 | 21 | 21.00 |
Specialized mining | 95 | 119 | 24.00 |
Agricultural machinery, equipment | 716 | 760 | 44.00 |
Industrial machines, other | 3,023 | 3,068 | 45.00 |
Food, tobacco machinery | 207 | 258 | 51.00 |
Marine engines, parts | 63 | 123 | 60.00 |
Medicinal equipment | 2,197 | 2,280 | 83.00 |
Nonfarm tractors and parts | 147 | 303 | 156.00 |
Railway transportation equipment | 139 | 378 | 239.00 |
Industrial engines | 1,632 | 1,876 | 244.00 |
Materials handling equipment | 1,017 | 1,321 | 304.00 |
Laboratory testing instruments | 369 | 789 | 420.00 |
Measuring, testing, control instruments | 1,232 | 1,713 | 481.00 |
Excavating machinery | 690 | 1,347 | 657.00 |
Engines-civilian aircraft | 1,200 | 1,943 | 743.00 |
Parts-civilian aircraft | 742 | 1,712 | 970.00 |
Civilian aircraft | 948 | 2,176 | 1,228.00 |
Semiconductors | 2,176 | 4,448 | 2,272.00 |
Automotive vehicles, parts, and engines | 18,553 | 10,335 | (8,218.00) |
Consumer goods | 48,386 | 16,997 | (31,389.00) |
Apparel, textiles, nonwool or cotton | 2,502 | 408 | (2,094.00) |
Apparel, household goods - cotton | 3,995 | (3,995.00) | |
Other household goods | 4,754 | 1,453 | (3,301.00) |
TV's, VCR's, etc | 3,568 | 304 | (3,264.00) |
Pharmaceutical preparations | 6,307 | 3,468 | (2,839.00) |
Computer accessories | 5,057 | 2,366 | (2,691.00) |
Toys, games, and sporting goods | 3,266 | 879 | (2,387.00) |
Computers | 3,187 | 1,150 | (2,037.00) |
Furniture, household goods, etc. | 2,004 | 354 | (1,650.00) |
Footwear | 1,333 | (1,333.00) | |
Household appliances | 1,701 | 597 | (1,104.00) |
Photo equipment | 695 | (695.00) | |
Camping apparel and gear | 656 | (656.00) | |
Writing and art supplies | 1,128 | 612 | (516.00) |
Apparel,household goods-nontextile | 692 | 182 | (510.00) |
Cookware, cutlery, tools | 560 | 93 | (467.00) |
Gem diamonds | 1,724 | 1,267 | (457.00) |
Motorcycles and parts | 372 | (372.00) | |
Stereo equipment, etc | 559 | 201 | (358.00) |
Jewelry | 982 | 648 | (334.00) |
Apparel, household goods - wool | 304 | (304.00) | |
Gem stones, other | 246 | (246.00) | |
Glassware, chinaware | 186 | 48 | (138.00) |
Nursery stock, etc. | 126 | 36 | (90.00) |
Artwork, antiques, stamps, etc. | 703 | 627 | (76.00) |
Numismatic coins | 106 | 30 | (76.00) |
Rugs | 150 | 92 | (58.00) |
Musical instruments | 143 | 192 | 49.00 |
Sports apparel and gear | 52 | 52.00 | |
Pleasure boats and motors | 220 | 290 | 70.00 |
Tobacco, manufactured | 72 | 72.00 | |
Books, printed matter | 368 | 457 | 89.00 |
Records, tapes, and disks | 241 | 377 | 136.00 |
Toiletries and cosmetics | 551 | 742 | 191.00 |
Other goods | 5,493 | 4,203 | (1,290.00) |
My reaction: I put together is spreadsheet to show how vulnerable the US economy is. My personnal observations are:
1) Demand for capital goods, the only area where the US is running a big surplus, is going to get killed. Orders for new commercial aircrafts are going to drop to zero fast.
2) The above data is from September, after commodity prices came tumbling down. When the dollar starts weakening again, the trade deficit for Industrial supplies and materials is going grow fast.
3) The only areas in consumer goods where the US is running a surplus are…
Musical instruments
Sports apparel and gear
Pleasure boats and motors
Tobacco, manufactured
Books, printed matter
Records, tapes, and disks
Toiletries and cosmetics
…isn't that sad?
email
What an interesting list. It dispelled a misconception I had, that the U.S. was a net importer of food. From this list, that appears to be false.
Otherwise, it pretty much confirms my previous beliefs, namely that the U.S. exports things that ordinary people don't use: semiconductors, parts, machine tools, earthmoving equipment, aircraft, medical machines, and raw materials; and imports most of the things that ordinary people use.
That being the case, if there is a global slowdown in trade, the U.S. will suffer privations of basic goods.
Dave
http://daveeriqat.wordpress.com/
So is this guy full of it or what? He seems to be of the opinion that we can just print money into oblivion and get away with it. That "parking" assets in metals is only a temporary measure, but soon one can go back into stocks...
Thank you very much for that detailed list. I too was suprised to see that if the import spicket is turned off we at least wont starve to death. But maybe thats a false hope because if farmers can get "real money" at a higher rate then they can get here, they'll do it.
In fact I read a post on Argentina and the financial crisis they had and people there barely had anything to eat (the author actually got scurvy) despite being a very agriculturally orientated country.
The Government tried to impose price controls, but like all price controls they were at a rate below the price of production which led to black markets and scarcity along with protests from the farmers who basically blockaded Buenos Aires.
The list however gives me clues as to what is going to be in acute scarcity (ie. shoes,clothes,oil and seafood) which may be good domestic businesses to eventually allocate capital to.
As far as our oil needs go, this nonsense about alternative energy, mass transit and infrastructure building being a replacement for the current economy is ridiculous and most likely a boondogle of epic proportions leading to hyperinflation and currency collapse.
That capital needs to be conserved to build new factories that either supply is with the goods we NEED and are willing to PAY FOR or that we can export to other countries for the goods they have.
Our economy is saying slow the hell down! Stop with the Caligula consumption. Get more sensible, save money and CONTRACT!
After the contraction then we can sift through the ashes for any pearls left saving. But we need to learn how to save and be more self reliant again.
PS (sorry for rambling)
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