Reader JohnH asserts:

LNG is the US’ third largest export and fastest growing.

But I believe he/she misread the table in the article (see table at end of this post), and it’s natural gas and LNG combined that is the third top export category. If I go to BEA – US Trade in Goods (IDS-0008), and (painstakingly) download data for “natural gas liquids and mfd gases”, and total goods exports (balance of payments basis, seasonally adjusted), I obtain this picture:

Figure 1: Non-LNG exports (tan bar), and LNG exports (blue bar), both in millions $, quarterly rate, seasonally adjusted. NBER defined peak-to-trough recession dates shaded gray. Source: BEA, NBER, and author’s calculations.

As for contributing to goods exports, here’s the relevant picture.

Figure 2: Quarter-on-quarter change in non-LNG exports (tan bar), and change in LNG exports (blue bar), both in millions $, quarterly rate, seasonally adjusted. NBER defined peak-to-trough recession dates shaded gray. Source: BEA, NBER, and author’s calculations.

I will let readers decide if LNG exports (not natural gas and LNG) were a big contributor to US goods exports.

Bottom Line: Read your article (and table) closely.

Note: JohnH is the same person who asserted that the US government did not report median wages and/or income, adjusted for inflation.  See [1], [2], [3].

The top 10 exports accounted for a third of all U.S. exports through the first four months of the … [+]

USTRADENUMBERS.COM

Source: Roberts, Forbes (June 28, 2022).

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