US imports are heavily in 3 categories -
oil, automobiles on car carrier ships, and manufactured goods in containers. The drops have been mostly on the container shipments.
For dry bulk ships which move coal, wheat, cement, iron ore, etc.
The US has few imports.
The US exports coal, wheat, soybeans, corn/maize, on dry bulk.
The manufacturing countries of Asia are the main growth driver for dry bulk, moving coal, iron ore, food grains, ores, etc.
Since these are different parts of the manufacturing cycle, this may not be a strong an evidence of decoupling, but does tend to support the decoupling thesis. |
