Cargo tons carried in coastwise and intercoastal trade ...... 154,924,484 On the basis of the cargo breakdown, the following points can be made: a. b. C. All of the cargo carried by common carriers was dry cargo. The 5,805,652 tons carried by common carrier was 32 percent of the total of dry cargo carried. Approximately one-half of the dry-cargo operators are in common- The summations to follow of the principal commodity items transported within each domestic trade segment are for calendar year 1953 and have been abstracted in the Maritime Administration from data gathered by the Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers. The data for 1937 appeared in Appendix ↳ of "Economic Survey of Coastwise and Intercoastal Shipping," a publication issued in 1939 by the United States Maritime Commission. 4. Atlantic Coastwise. The dry-cargo Atlantic coastwise trade in 1953 totaled 7,515,217 tons, over 93 percent of which consisted of bulk movements of coal. Of the remaining tonnage, the commodity group of wood and paper contributed less than three percent, and metals and manufactures less than two percent. General cargo dropped from approximately five million tons in 1937 to less than 400,000 tons in 1953. The bulk coal trade, which comprised approximately 68 percent of the 1937 traffic, decreased from 17 million to 7 million tons over the same period. Since 1937, the movement of petroleum and other tanker commodities between ports along the Atlantic coast has doubled. The decline in coal shipments and the rise in tanker traffic may be attributed primarily to the substitution of oil for coal as household and industrial fuel. Presumably the land carriers absorbed the greater part of the 4.6 million tons of prewar general cargo traffic lost by the deepwater coastal lines, but there are strong indications that a not inconEseas.e portion of this traffic has been taken over by the barge lines and #a..mcraft self-propelled vessels operating on intracoastal waterways. It is impossible to measure with any degree of accuracy the amount of stal waterway traffic that can be considered directly competitive with here coastwise trade. Some of this traffic is clearly noncompetitive, dat it begins or ends at points that cannot be served by coastwise Ex.x, for either physical or economic reasons. The annual reports of the bame of traineers, however, give a breakdown of intracoastal waterway traffic Arres that segregates through traffic from traffic originating or terminatA kihin each segment of waterway for which data are reported. It is a fair amelion that a large part of the through traffic on an important segment of wterway is directly competitive with the long-haul coastwise trade. One such serment is the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway between Norfolk, and the South Carolina State line. The Corps of Engineers Report for 1953 may that in that year the through traffic on this section of the waterway wverted to 1,217,771 short tons, exclusive of some 278,000 tons of inbound, wound art local traffic in the area. of the 1,247,771 tons of through traffic, about 299,000 tons consisted strimum products. The remaining 949,000 tons could all be classed as men, try cargo. The greater part of this, about 700,000 tons, consisted of pend and paper products, the pulpwood moving south and the products north. balance of 249,000 tons was made up of a variety of products including subfacial amounts of soybeans, salt, sand and gravel, steel mill products, trial and miscellaneous chemicals, and phosphate fertilizer materials. By this measurement, it appears that intracoastal waterway traffic in retry cargo is somewhat more than twice as large as the deepwater in seastwise traffic. All of the through traffic on this section of the eway may not be directly competitive, but some of it is; and it must be bered that there are other parts of the waterway further north, such as e from Camden or Wilmington down the Delaware, through the canal and via hesapeake to Baltimore or Norfolk, which are known to carry other traffic rect competition with the coastwise trade. In any event, it is clear that intracoastal waterway general dry-cargo business on the east coast is conmorably larger than the coastwise business. There is evidence also that intracoastal waterway traffic has increased ferably since World War II. Without a breakdown segregating through the Corps of Engineers reports that traffic of all kinds on the NorCarolina stretch of the waterway increased from 873,063 tons in 1,525,561 tons in 1953. 5. Atlantic-Gulf. The coastwise commerce moving between the Atlantic Kad coast has probably maintained greater consistency over a period have other segments of coastwise trade. The only downward trend slight tapering off in tanker carryings from the 1951 figure of lion tons to B4.0 million tons in 1953. Since the 1953 tonnage is greater than that of 1950 and at least 40 percent higher than that of it seems reasonable to conclude that the 1953 decrease in petroleum arts was largely due to the increased importation of fuel and crude oils turing the past few years. Sulfur and phosphate fertilizer materials amounted to nearly 59 percent of the 4,499,138 dry-cargo tons transported in 1953. In 1937, the AtlanticGulf coastwise dry-cargo carryings of these two bulk commodities comprised about 40 percent of the 4.1 million tons carried. Although the general cargo content of this trade remains as diversified as it was during the prewar years, the volume has been reduced considerably by the elimination of a few specific items from water-borne commerce. The largest single item to disappear is that of copper and copper products, amounting to 283,019 tons in 1937; a substantial amount of flour and meal (116,327 tons) was transported from the Gulf coast to the Atlantic coast in 1937, and this item also does not appear in 1953. In the instance of copper, queries were made (a) to determine if similar tonnages had been diverted to land transportation, or (b) to establish that the commodity was no longer available for transportation between Gulf and Atlantic areas. This movement has been captured by rail transportation; the same may have occurred in the case of flour and meal. In contrast to the disappearance of some commodities from this area of intercoastal trade, a study of operations shows some encouraging trends among the numerous commodities remaining in the trade. The 1953 carryings of rice, synthetic rubbers and industrial chemicals exceeded those before the war. A percentage breakdown of the principal commodities transported during 1953 in dry-cargo ships, in order of tonnage importance, lists: sulfur, 30.8 percent; phosphate fertilizer materials, 28 percent; industrial chemicals, 9.3 per cent; paper, related products, and manufactures, 5.9 percent; rolled and finished steel mill products, 3.1 percent; and all other commodities, 22.9 percent. Four of these commodity groups reached their maximum figures for the postwar period; namely, animals and animal products; vegetable products, inedible, except fibres and woods; wood and paper; and machinery and vehicles. 6. Gulf Coastwise. From the available prewar statistics portraying the water-borne commerce confined to the domestic ports on the Gulf of Mexico, there appear to have been no extensive operations at that time in dry-cargo ships. In 1937, the deep-sea commodity movement totaled less than a million tons after excluding approximately ten million tons of petroleum products presumably carried in tanker ships. About one-half of the other-thanpetroleum tonnage consisted of bulk movements of limestone and shale, sulfur, phosphate materials, and miscellaneous nonmetallic minerals. The remaining traffic of less than 500,000 tons was comprised of unclassified merchandise and other general cargo commodities. Tanker tonnage during the period 1950-1953 continued to be near ten million tons annually. By 1950 the carryings of dry-cargo ships had dropped to 518,954 tons, 84 percent of which consisted of phosphate fertilizer materials and sulfur. By 1953 the Gulf coastwise dry-cargo trade reached a low of 252,770 tons. In view of the fact that 90 percent of this amount was made up of phosphate fertilizer materials (85.7%) and sulfur (4.6%), little tonnage remained to ships seeking general cargo. The declining trend of general cargo traffic is contrary to the industrial and economic expansion of the entire Gulf coast area. As in the Atlantic coastwise trade, the amount of traffic carried on the Gulf intracoastal waterway is impressive as compared to the deepwater coastwise traffic. On the Gulf coast, however, it is even more difficult to measure or identify unts or areas of direct competition between the two channels of transporlation. In other words, a major factor in the location of new industrial plants along the Julf intracoastal waterway was obviously the economy of transportation via waterway direct to and from the immediate vicinity of the plants. Bret of the new traffic generated by this development was never carried by deepwater coastwise ships, and cannot be considered competitive. The waterway service in this area is, in effect, a door-to-door service somewhat simiar to the inland service provided by railroads and trucks, and for the most part it is simply not available to, or suitable for, the coastwise trade. The volume of deepwater Gulf coastwise dry-cargo traffic was never large. It is a fair assumption, however, that some part of the decline in We traffic is due to absorption by the far larger and expanding intracoastal waterway system. As an indication of the volume of traffic carried on the Gulf intramartal waterway, the Corps of Engineers Report for 1953 shows that vessel taxiña,everything but rafted logs) on the Lake Charles Deepwater Channel, wasma, increased from 8.5 million tons in 1947 to 16.2 million tons in .. The 1953 total was almost 100 percent through traffic. Crude and od petroleum products accounted for about 11.7 million tons. The remain1.5 million tons may be considered dry cargo, with exceptions for certain lafustrial chemicals and coal-tar products, totaling approximately one million liste, some part of which was carried in liquid bulk. The other major items ** 1.7 million tons of crude sea shells, another 1.2 million tons of iron and steel scrap and metal products, 130,000 tons of sulfur and 235,000 tons of wheat. Pacific Coastwise. The Pacific coastwise domestic trade has prerally followed the pattern of other segments of the coastwise shipping ustry. Annual increases in tanker carryings, predominantly of petroleum miga, sccurred in each of the years 1950-1953. Liquid cargo carried by tatuere during 1953 amounted to 28,949,209 tons, which appears to be the maxsen tempage recorded for this type of transportation. An estimate of liquid targes hauled on the Pacific coast during 1937 does not exceed one-half of "190 tonnage. The dry-cargo tonnage in 1937 has been estimated at 3.7 million tons ared with an approximate 1.5 million ton annual average for the four postwar years for which data are presently available. The dry-cargo carrying in 1953 totaled 1,537,322 tons; of this amount about 95 percent was sace up by four bulk-type commodities: namely, lumber 53.9 percent; building cement 21.3 percent; salt 12.1 percent; and standard newsprint paper peront. The present situation bears resemblance to that of the Gulf rade in the limited quantity of general cargo freight available for berth rice transportation of such commodities as grains, flour, canned goods, imm and steel manufactures, and general merchandise. These commodities, it had provided substantial tonnage for the prewar trade, virtually do appear in recent data. 8. Intercoastal (via Panama Canal). A means of direct intercoastal domestic water-bome commerce was made possible by the completion in 1914 of the Panama Canal and the resulting elimination of cargo trans-shipments across the Isthmus by rail. The resulting low cost of water transportation quickly attracted the marketable products of the widely-separated coastal areas. Prior to World War II, the volume of trade had grown to an approximate level of 11 million tons in 1924 and then varied between 6.4 and 8.9 million tons until its suspension during the war. The prewar expansion of the petroleum industry in the areas east of the Panama Canal caused a major portion of the decline in eastbound canal tonnage. Postwar tanker carryings eastbound almost ceased, except in 1950 when an unusually large surplus of specific petroleum oils was moved to the Atlantic coast. The gradual increase in westbound tanker commodity tonnages, which include chemicals and related products, discloses an encouraging four-year trend. It is not expected, however, that the intercoastal tanker traffic will again be an important proportion of the trade, unless a significant change in the present sources of petroleum products occurs. of greatest importance to the intercoastal trade are the services offered by the dry-cargo carriers. In 1953, approximately one-fourth of the domestic coastwise and intercoastal dry-cargo tonnage was in this intercoastal service. The data contained in Table 7 show tonnage figures for commodity groups for the years 1939, 1949 and 1953. The total figure for 1953 is about four and one-half million tons-a decline of 38 percent from 1939 but an increase of 18 percent over 1949. Lumber continues to be the most important commodity group eastbound. Only one commodity group showed an increase in traffic, 1939 to 1953. This increase, both eastbound and westbound, in machinery and vehicles, was very slight, both in total and in the extent of the increase. Study of itemized commodities indicates a trend toward fewer items. In this respect, the intercoastal trade is slowly assuming a similarity to the bulk-type transportation that has become dominant in the coastwise segments of domestic deep-sea commerce. For the year 1953 the commodity groups of wood and paper, and vegetable food products and beverages comprised over 93 percent of the 2,559,045 tons transported eastbound. Further, the seven principal eastbound items in order of volume are contained within the above two groups and represent approximately 90 percent of the total. These items and their percentages of the total eastbound movement are as follows: lumber and shingles, 59.8; vegetables and preparations, canned, 9.5; fruits and preparations, canned, 9.1; wood pulp, 3.9; groceries and food, 2.5; fruits and preparations, dried, 2.3; and paper and manufactures, 1.9. Somewhat greater diversity exists in the westbound trade. In 1953, six of the ten commodity groups made up approximately 93 percent of the 1,999,839 tons moving westbound. Although the total eastbound tonnage is greater than that moving westbound in the intercoastal services, berth service carryings of the westbound segment exceed those carried eastbound due to the nature of the commodities carried. |