U.S. Exports. Where is U.S. Comparative Advantage?

Some of you might answer industrial machines.  Not a bad answer.  That’s #3 at $37B for the first 11 months of 2011.  Others might answer civilian aircraft.  Again, this has been a traditionally strong export industry.  Guess what, it comes in at #10 with $27B for the first 11 months on 2011.  How about engines for civilian aircraft?  #15 on the list at $21.6B.  The correct answer, believe it or not is petroleum products at $87.5B, more than twice the amount for #2, pharmaceutical preparations.

As the Bureau of Economic Analysis puts it:

Fuel exports, worth an estimated $88 billion in 2011, have surged for two reasons:

1. Crude oil, the raw material from which gasoline and other refined products are made, is a lot more expensive. Oil prices averaged $95 a barrel in 2011, while gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon — a record. A decade ago oil averaged $26 a barrel, while gasoline averaged $1.44 a gallon.

2. The volume of fuel exports is rising. The U.S. is using less fuel because of a weak economy and more efficient cars and trucks. That allows refiners to sell more fuel to rapidly growing economies in Latin America, for example. In 2011, U.S. refiners exported 117 million gallons per day of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products, up from 40 million gallons per day a decade earlier.”

The United States has become a net exporter of fuel for the first time since 1949.

Top 15 U.S. Exports, January-November 2011