Inland Water Transportation NAICS 483211, 483212

Nov 13, 2025 - US Inland Waterways Infrastructure Gets Poor Grade

• America’s inland‑waterways infrastructure received a C- grade in the 2025 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Report Card, an improvement from the D+ it earned in 2021. The network of 12,000 miles of inland navigation channels and 11,000 miles of intracoastal waterways plays a critical role in moving roughly $158 billion of goods each year. Despite its importance, the system faces significant challenges. Many locks and dams are well past their lifespan, with 80% of structures aging beyond their expected service periods, creating maintenance and reliability issues. The ASCE says repair and upgrade backlogs have reached $7.5 billion, while droughts and reduced water levels further strain operations. Although federal funding has increased in recent years, the pace of project delivery remains slow, often taking decades instead of years. Cost overruns and insufficient ongoing maintenance continue to limit the inland system’s efficiency, posing risks to commercial shipping.
• So far in 2025, US grain exports to China have dropped 57%, a sharp hit that highlights how global trade shifts ripple through domestic supply chains. The inland waterways system, especially the Mississippi River, plays a critical role in moving these exports and other key goods efficiently. In 2023, about 449 million short tons of cargo traveled US rivers and canals, including 264 million short tons of domestic shipments and 194.2 million short tons tied to imports and exports, per the US Army Corps of Engineers. With fewer exports going to China, the waterways are now redirecting more cargo to alternative markets, showing their flexibility but also their importance in keeping goods flowing. From coal and chemicals to agricultural products, inland waterways quietly underpin both domestic industries and international commerce even as US trade patterns constantly shift.

• Revenue for inland water transportation companies climbed 5.8% in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to the US Census Bureau, reaching $2.4 billion in an industry that is steadily on the upswing. High demand for domestic energy and agricultural exports increased shipping volumes toward the end of last year, although US tariff policy could upend that progress during the second half of 2025. Revenue also increased in Q4 due to higher barge freight rates thanks to inflation and higher fuel and labor costs. Drought conditions across US waterways improved during the year, raising water levels and increasing volume and regularity in inland shipping. Inland water freight companies also benefit from a driver shortage in the trucking industry, which has some companies looking for alternatives to ship commodities, including freight barges.
• Containership arrivals at the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, which together handle one-third of US container imports, fell 17% in early May 2025 amid the off-again, on-again Trump tariff policy. Port officials said the ships that did arrive were carrying less cargo than normal, which ripples across the supply chain in less hours for dockworkers and warehouse employees, and less cargo for truckers to haul. Nearby restaurants and businesses also see depressed sales when the port is not busy. (Port of LA officials say every four containers entering the port supports one job nationwide.) According to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the lull is causing full-time dockworkers to cut their working days to only three or four a week, while part timers are essentially idle. Port officials largely blame US-China trade tensions that make cargo unaffordable and contribute to economic uncertainty.