Transportation Cost Modeling of International Containerized 

Soybean Exports in the United States (Summary)

Agricultural 

Marketing 

Service

October 2017

What is the Issue

The landscape of the intermodal shipping industry is ever-changing. Agricultural exporters are sensitive to 

marginal changes in the cost of transportation and are always on the lookout for newer and better information 

regarding changes in costs and market behavior. This new report by researchers at Rutgers University 

quantitatively details the costs and transportation options for U.S. containerized soybean exporters. 

Containerized shipping is a small but growing niche for grain and oilseed exports. Intermodal container 

shipments offer multiple advantages, particularly in terms of quality assurance, and can increase the 

attractiveness of U.S. exports in an increasingly competitive global market. However, the ability to maintain 

competitiveness largely relies on the management of transportation costs, a particularly complex task for 

soybeans and other domestic agricultural commodities due to multiple transportation modes, complex 

networks, and various stakeholders. 

To help identify optimal transportation strategies for improving the United States’ economic competitiveness in 

containerized soybean exports, the researchers developed a multi-modal transportation cost analysis modeling 

framework.

How was the Study Condu

The researchers used two models. Using modal-specific transportation network and cost information, the 

researchers employed a Least Cost Market Analysis (LCMA) model to estimate and compare “point-to-point” 

transportation costs of alternative shipment routes from a domestic production site to a foreign port. For 

each candidate route, the analysis estimates the transportation time, distance, and the cost for each modal 

segment. The researchers also developed Geospatial Intermodal Freight Transportation (GIFT), an optimization 

This is a summary of “Transportation Cost Modeling of International Containerized Soybean Exports in the 

United States,” by Bai, Yun, at Rutgers University. Funding for this paper came from the Agricultural Marketing 

Service (AMS) through cooperative agreement number 15-TMXXX-NJ-0008. The full paper is available at: 

http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/transportation-cost-modeling-international-containerized-soybeanexports-united-states. 

April Taylor
model for the transportation network aimed at improving the national flow of containerized soybeans. This 

study uses these models to perform a cost analysis on Iowa soybeans outbound for Shanghai and Rotterdam. 

Furthermore, the report applies the GIFT model to simulate the optimal flow from high production counties 

across the United States to various markets in Asia under two cost scenarios, low and high port-to-port ocean 

rate scenarios. 

The study used various sources of data to characterize the domestic soybean supply chain. The researchers 

determined soybean production and transportation trends using databases and reports from the U.S. 

Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Statistical Service (NASS) and Agricultural Marketing Service 

(AMS). The researchers acquired data for transportation network and intermodal facility representations 

from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ National Transportation Atlas Database and the U.S. Department of 

Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. AMS datasets from the Grain Transportation Report and 

the Grain Truck and Ocean Rate Advisory provided researchers with truck and barge transport rates. To analyze 

rail moves, the researchers used the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) Uniform Rail Costing System Phase 

3 Railroad Cost Program. Because first-hand data for ocean moves is proprietary contract data and difficult to 

obtain, this research crosschecked data from multiple online resources in order to estimate cost values within 

reasonable ranges.

What did the Study Find?

When considering transportation costs alone, the research showed shipments from Iowa to the Port of New 

Orleans, via inland waterway (barge mode), as the least expensive solution per metric ton. However, this route 

is also the longest in terms of travel time when compared to the other itineraries that use rail to transport 

soybeans from intermodal facilities in Iowa to domestic seaports. 

Research using the GIFT model with market demand and U.S. domestic supply figures showed, in theory, 

where different sources of domestically produced soybeans should pair optimally with various foreign markets, 

and by which transport modes. In scenarios with low port-to-port ocean shipping rates, the model minimized 

the usage of rail, instead favoring transport by barge or transport to ports that are closer in proximity. In 

scenarios with high port-to-port ocean shipping rates, the model favored shipping some soybeans through the 

Port of Long Beach/Los Angeles via rail instead of through the Port of New Orleans. 

For researchers, this work can serve as a long-term reference to aid in a better understanding of transportation 

costs in rail, barge, roadway, and ocean shipping, and support other research efforts related to agricultural 

transportation and logistics. For shippers, the researchers at Rutgers are currently developing the cost-analysis 

methodology and geographic information system (GIS)-based routing into a computer-based model that can 

automate route selection, cost calculation, route cost comparison, and visualization.

Preferred Citation

Bai, Yun, Transportation Cost Modeling of International Containerized Soybean Exports in the United States. 

Rutgers University, October 2017. Web. <http://dx.doi.org/10.9752/TS207.10-2017>

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