Soo Kim (202) 720-8998 Soo.kim@ams.usda.gov
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2011—The grain industry is gaining access to a wealth of current and historical transportation and shipping information with the release of raw datasets by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Concurrent with the department’s weekly publication of a Grain Transportation Report, which details prices, tonnage, and rates for rail, barge, truck, and ocean transportation of grain, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service released raw figures and data underpinning the analytical contents of the report. Users now have a breadth of information to support USDA’s ongoing reporting of grain transportation information, including costs of shipping grain commodities, top destinations for U.S. grain exports, topical events affecting transport, and current trends in the business. Newly released datasets are available for:
- Changes in truck, rail, barge, and ocean freight rates
- Interior prices of corn, soybean, and wheat
- Weekly rail deliveries to port
- Weekly railcar bids and offers
- Monthly tariff rail rates and fuel surcharges from U.S. to Mexico
- Railroad fuel surcharges
- Grain barge rates for major grain shipping points
- Grain barge movements through specific locks and dams
- Unshipped export sales balances and year-to-date export sales of wheat, corn, and soybeans
- Cumulative export sales commitments for the top 5 importing countries of U.S. corn, soybean, and wheat (which account for over half of U.S. grain exports)
- Inspections of grain for export and comparisons to three year averages
- Number of grain vessels loaded during the week and expected to be loaded within the next 10 days in the Gulf, Pacific Northwest, and Vancouver
- Vessel loading activity in the Gulf compared to previous years
- Monthly ocean freight rates for bulk grain shipments and their spread between the Gulf and Pacific Northwest to Japan
Now any one can access the data through Data.gov, an interface designed to empower users by allowing them to formulate, structure, and analyze raw figures to suit their unique needs. A search for “grain transportation” under the “raw data” option will produce the data sets. The USDA’s decision to release the information stemmed from the desire for the agricultural industry to explore opportunities in the market and enhance the decision-making abilities of grain marketers, agribusinesses leaders, and traders. Additionally, researchers and members of the public can refer to the information to analyze marketing and transportation issues in greater depth.
Collected and made available by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, Transportation Services Division, data will be updated each Thursday with every new issue of the Grain Transportation Report. The report is available at http://www.ams.usda.gov/GTR. The aggregated data protects identities of individual firms and does not include proprietary information.
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