

America’s top export in 2011 was . . . fuel?  - acak
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/americas-top-export-in-2011-was--fuel/2011/12/31/gIQAzlvgSP_print.html

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mbell
I'm reading the U.S. Census Bureau report from October [0] and I can't for the
life of me figure out where these numbers are coming from, they seem to be
flat out wrong.

Using NAICS product categories the "top 5" through October appear to be:

1) Transportation Equipment - 164.79 billion

2) Chemicals - 156.7 billion

3) Non-Electrical Machinery - 118.4 billion

4) Computers and Electrical Products - 102.4 billion

5) Petroleum and Coal Products - 81.26 billion

Am I reading this report wrong?

[0] [http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-
Release/current_pr...](http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-
Release/current_press_release/ft900.pdf)

~~~
nostromo
They could both be correct; it depends on how you slice it.

For example, the article notes, "Aircraft, motor vehicles, vacuum tubes and
telecom equipment were next on the list of top exports."

In your list, both aircraft and motor vehicles are are grouped under
"transportation equipment," making it a much larger group.

~~~
mbell
Understood, but nothing seems to add up to the given numbers. Nor do the
categories used seem to be based on any standard I can find.

Its pretty easy to make almost anything you want appear to be the "biggest" if
you can arbitrarily manipulate the category system used.

------
ams6110
_Aircraft, motor vehicles, vacuum tubes and telecom equipment were next on the
list of top exports._

Vacuum tubes??!?

~~~
Kadin
Makes (a small amount of) sense -- the only high-quality tubes I've ever seen
were either manufactured in the U.S., Europe, or in various parts of the
former USSR; Chinese tubes have a very poor reputation at least in audio
circles.

Perhaps this is because nobody ever bothered to put a serious effort into
outsourcing vacuum-tube production, in the same way ICs and microprocessors
have been outsourced, leaving the remaining production still domestic?

Or maybe it's just that there are huge stockpiles of the things sitting around
in the U.S. and they're slowly being sold off, both for domestic consumption
and export, but the net result is an export of tubes? That wouldn't be hard to
believe either.

~~~
kamagmar
According to this:

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/big-shift-for-gas-
guz...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/big-shift-for-gas-guzzling-
nation-fuels-are-top-us-export-oil-imports-still-worlds-
highest/2011/12/30/gIQAw0A5QP_story.html?tid=sm_twitter_washingtonpost&tid=sm_twitter_washingtonpost)

we exported $37.1B worth of vacuum tubes last year. I could be wrong but that
amount seems wildly implausible. Could the category actually be "Vacuum tubes,
etc." where "etc" is semiconductors?

~~~
ams6110
The only things I really know of that would still use vacuum tubes are
esoteric high-end audiophile amplifiers, and some "old school" guitar amps
(Marshall, Hiwatt, etc). Is there really that big a market? Are they used for
anything else?

~~~
stan_rogers
You are overlooking things like magnetrons, x-ray tubes, photomultipliers,
CRTs (which still have a lot of applications outside of the video display
sphere), krytons and so forth. It's not all about diodes, triodes, tetrodes
and pentodes.

------
waterside81
Oil from the tar sands in Alberta is sent to the US to be refined and then
sold so while the numbers might say one thing, the truth is a bit murkier.

~~~
cpeterso
And the Keystone Pipeline project, which is supposed to "create American jobs"
(for a couple hundred temp workers) and "improve America's energy
independence" (through oil exports), is designed to help move Alberta oil to
US refineries and shipping ports on the Gulf Coast.

------
tokenadult
This is a very recent trend reversal. An earlier story I saw in the print
edition of the Wall Street Journal discussed some of the background to the
very large recent increase in exports from the United States to other
countries of refined petroleum products that count as "fuel." Some more
current stories

[http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0103-fuel-
expo...](http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0103-fuel-
exports-20111231,0,366760.story)

[http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/story/2011-1...](http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/story/2011-12-31/united-
states-export/52298812/1)

[http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/12/the-2011-ar...](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/12/the-2011-argus-
americas-crude-summit-held-in-houston-last-januarywas-named-life-after-
macondo-it-was-focused-almost-entire.html)

[http://www.ogj.com/articles/2011/12/market-watch-oil-
makes-s...](http://www.ogj.com/articles/2011/12/market-watch-oil-makes-small-
gains-gas-price-continues-decline.html)

give more background on the rise in United States fuel exports and when the
trend became apparent to federal government energy policy officials.

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luser001
Are these really exports to other countries, or do shipments intended for or
directly to US forces in Iraq, Afghanistan etc also count as exports?

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nevinera
We exported a lot of it straight into the ocean!

