The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced recently that inland waterborne commerce reached 667 million tons in 1980, an increase of 5.5 percent over 1979 levels. Total domestic waterborne tonnage grew from 1.08 billion tons to 1.1 billion tons, a 2 percent growth.
Coastal traffic grew 5 percent, from 304.6 million tons to 320 million tons. Great Lakes traffic was down, from 13.6 million tons to 11.5 million tons.
Total foreign commerce also dropped by some 7 percent, with exports increasing 12 percent and imports 18 percent.
The 1980 data are estimates and are based on statistics collected and partially verified by the Corps of Engineers.