Executive Summary The inland waterways network in the United States is a vital trade corridor serving energy, agriculture, and other freight shipments internally and for export. Major global events like the war in Ukraine and the resulting supply chain disruptions illustrate the importance of the system and create an urgent need for efficient movement of goods. While infrastructure investments in recent years have significantly improved the system, this report shows how competition from other global waterways could limit this success if quality maintenance and operations are not continued. Several rivers and canals make up the 12,000-mile U.S. inland waterway network. These include the infrastructure that enables commercial navigation on the Mississippi River, the Ohio River, the Gulf Coast Intracoastal Waterway, and others. The network moves over 500 million tons of freight annually, constituting mostly bulk goods, and is a lowcost route for exporters. Inland waterway systems frequently carry goods that are too large for trucks or rail cars, such as windmill blades, booster rockets, and oversize machinery. The inland waterways are also strategically important for the military, moving vehicles and components for shipbuilding. However there are two main threats to these strategic trade and military advantages. First, underinvestment in the system’s infrastructure, maintenance, and operations has degraded the service levels on the rivers, making it less reliable and less competitive. Investments from the federal government over the past decade have made substantial progress in increasing reliability and clearing the maintenance backlog; but continued prioritization of projects that support efficient operations will be necessary to increase shipper confidence. The second threat is external. While the United States has been upgrading domestic inland waterway infrastructure, other countries have been doing the same for their own military and commercial advantage. Investments in economic development and infrastructure have boosted traffic on rivers like the Amazon and Yangtze. Some of this investment comes from state-owned enterprises in countries like China, which could put American exporters at a competitive disadvantage. To inform discussions about investments and the future of the U.S. inland waterway network, this research examines six cases of major freight rivers around the world, evaluating their governance, freight flows, investment levels, and role in the global supply chain. In South America, the Amazon River is naturally navigable and although comparably little freight is moved on the river, freight volumes are growing rapidly as Brazil
Waterborne Competitiveness
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