WASHINGTON, D.C. – The amount of freight moving between Canada and the U.S. has decreased in value, due in large part to lower prices for mineral fuels, according to a new report.

The U.S. Transportation Department says it totaled US$47.5 billion in July 2015, down 14.0 percent from July 2014, as no mode of transportation carried a higher value of freight than a year earlier. The report includes freight movements by truck, rail, vessel, pipeline, air, other and unknown modes of transport.

Mineral fuels, including crude oil, are a large share of freight carried by vessel and pipeline, which were down 28.3 percent and 36.4 percent, respectively, year-over-year, though a decline in the value of freight shipments does not necessarily mean there was a lower volume of freight, according to the Department.

Trucks carried 57.5 percent of the US$47.5 billion of freight to and from Canada, followed by rail, 14.3 percent; pipeline, 11.0 percent; vessel, 5.2 percent; and air, 4.7 percent.

The surface transportation modes of truck, rail and pipeline carried 82.8 percent of the total U.S.-Canada freight flows.

U.S. truck imports by value with Canada fell 1.7 percent in July from a year ago while exports declined 9.6 percent.

This happened as the value of freight moved between the U.S., Canada and Mexico combined totaled US$93 billion in July 2015, an 8 percent decline, as all modes except air carried less freight than in July 2014.