Academic tool

US Place Atlas

Trace US ocean imports by port of entry, by consignee city and state (the importer address on the bill), or by shipper city (the foreign factory address). Cluster maps sit on every slice. Click a row to go one step deeper. The URL is the citation.

All research tools · Research Desk · Universe: kirchner.bols

Port of entry · Where the vessel cleared Consignee city · US importer address Shipper city · Foreign production address

Methods (read before you cite)

  • US Customs ocean Bills of Lading only. Air, truck, rail, and informal entries are out of sample.
  • Port of entry is unloading_port (code, city, ST). That is where the vessel cleared, not the consignee headquarters.
  • Consignee and shipper city/state/zip/country are parsed from consignee_address and shipper_address and stored on kirchner.bols. Bills without a parseable US state+ZIP drop out of consignee-place slices. Shipper country falls back to the filed origin country when the address has no country token.
  • Coordinates prefer a Census street geocode of the full address when it exists; otherwise a US ZIP centroid or a GeoNames city centroid. consignee_geo_precision / shipper_geo_precision is street, zip, or city. Maps cluster those points.
  • Production partners are distinct shipper_name strings. Parties are filing names, not resolved legal entities.
  • Every number below is from the SQL printed under it. Nothing is imputed.

Start from a worked example

Consignee

California importers

Drill by the address on the bill — LA, City of Industry, Ontario — not the port the box cleared.

Shipper

Vietnam factories

Production cities parsed from shipper_address, then the US importers they ship to.

Port of entry

Savannah, Georgia

The gateway itself: who receives through it, and where those consignees actually sit.
Reset place

Midwest

Retrieved 2026-08-23 UTC from kirchner.bols.

Unique BOLs

3,304

US importers

828

Production partners

697

Origin countries

51

US consignees

Clustered by parsed consignee city / ZIP. Circle size is unique bills.

Foreign production

Clustered by parsed shipper city. Circle size is unique bills.

States in this region

Click a row to drill down. Bars are unique bills in this slice.

Place BOLs Share
Illinois (IL) 1,330
Michigan (MI) 1,075
Ohio (OH) 509
Wisconsin (WI) 225
Minnesota (MN) 110
Indiana (IN) 48
Missouri (MO) 6
North Dakota (ND) 1

Products in this place

HS-4 as filed. Click to keep this geography and filter the product.

  1. 1. 7204 STEEL COILS . 862
  2. 2. 7216 HOT ROLLED STEELPLATES 171
  3. 3. 7904 XXXXX WIRE RODS . . . . . . 167
  4. 4. 7222 STEEL BARS . . . . . . 153
  5. 5. 9818 SPARE PARTS 94
  6. 6. 7326 STEEL SHEETS 77
  7. 7. 9031 LOW PROFILE ALUMINIUM SOWS (AL 99.80) LOW 70
  8. 8. 7314 HOT-DIP ZINC-COATED STEEL 61
  9. 9. 3307 SALT IN BULK 57
  10. 10. 7227 HOT ROLLED STEEL BARS 46
  11. 11. 2523 PORTLAND CEMENT IN BULK 45
  12. 12. 6807 ASPHALT IN BULK 38

Origin countries

Where the cargo is filed as coming from. Click to keep this geography and filter origin.

  1. 1. BE, BELGIUM 829
  2. 2. CN, CHINA 479
  3. 3. SE, SWEDEN 456
  4. 4. CA, CANADA 391
  5. 5. DE, GERMANY 371
  6. 6. BR, BRAZIL 123
  7. 7. IT, ITALY 93
  8. 8. KR, REPUBLIC OF KOREA 72
  9. 9. GB, UNITED KINGDOM 57
  10. 10. TH, THAILAND 56
  11. 11. IN, INDIA 40
  12. 12. ES, SPAIN 30

Cite this query

Kirchner Data. Place Atlas: Midwest, 2026–2026. Retrieved 2026-08-23 from https://kirchnerdata.com/research-atlas?from=2026&region=midwest&to=2026. Universe: US ocean Bills of Lading (CBP), table kirchner.bols. Place mode: port. Consignee/shipper city, state, zip, country, and coordinates are stored columns parsed from the filing address.

SQL that produced these numbers

totals · 1 row 
SELECT uniqExact(bill_of_lading) AS bols, uniqExact(consignee_name) AS firms, uniqExact(shipper_name) AS partners, uniqExact(country) AS origins, uniqExact(unloading_port) AS ports, round(sum(weight_in_kg)) AS kg FROM bols WHERE (actual_arrival_date >= toDate('2026-01-01') AND actual_arrival_date <= toDate('2026-12-31')) AND trimBoth(unloading_port) != '' AND upperUTF8(trim(extract(trimBoth(unloading_port), ',\\s*([A-Z]{2})\\s*$'))) IN ('IL','IN','MI','OH','WI','IA','KS','MN','MO','NE','ND','SD')
products · 12 rows 
SELECT substring(replaceAll(hs_code, '.', ''), 1, 4) AS hs4, anyHeavy(product_desc) AS sample, uniqExact(bill_of_lading) AS bols FROM bols WHERE (actual_arrival_date >= toDate('2026-01-01') AND actual_arrival_date <= toDate('2026-12-31')) AND trimBoth(unloading_port) != '' AND upperUTF8(trim(extract(trimBoth(unloading_port), ',\\s*([A-Z]{2})\\s*$'))) IN ('IL','IN','MI','OH','WI','IA','KS','MN','MO','NE','ND','SD') AND length(replaceAll(hs_code, '.', '')) >= 4 GROUP BY hs4 ORDER BY bols DESC LIMIT 12
origins · 12 rows 
SELECT country AS name, uniqExact(bill_of_lading) AS bols, uniqExact(shipper_name) AS partners FROM bols WHERE (actual_arrival_date >= toDate('2026-01-01') AND actual_arrival_date <= toDate('2026-12-31')) AND trimBoth(unloading_port) != '' AND upperUTF8(trim(extract(trimBoth(unloading_port), ',\\s*([A-Z]{2})\\s*$'))) IN ('IL','IN','MI','OH','WI','IA','KS','MN','MO','NE','ND','SD') AND trimBoth(country) != '' AND lengthUTF8(trimBoth(country)) >= 3 AND upperUTF8(trimBoth(country)) NOT IN ('N/A','NA','NONE','NULL','UNKNOWN','-','--','N.A.') GROUP BY name ORDER BY bols DESC LIMIT 12
map_consignees · 225 rows 
SELECT consignee_city AS city, consignee_state AS state, consignee_zip AS zip, any(consignee_lat) AS lat, any(consignee_lon) AS lon, any(consignee_geo_precision) AS precision, uniqExact(bill_of_lading) AS bols FROM bols WHERE (actual_arrival_date >= toDate('2026-01-01') AND actual_arrival_date <= toDate('2026-12-31')) AND trimBoth(unloading_port) != '' AND upperUTF8(trim(extract(trimBoth(unloading_port), ',\\s*([A-Z]{2})\\s*$'))) IN ('IL','IN','MI','OH','WI','IA','KS','MN','MO','NE','ND','SD') AND consignee_lat != 0 AND consignee_lon != 0 GROUP BY city, state, zip ORDER BY bols DESC LIMIT 400
map_shippers · 45 rows 
SELECT shipper_city AS city, shipper_country AS country, any(shipper_lat) AS lat, any(shipper_lon) AS lon, any(shipper_geo_precision) AS precision, uniqExact(bill_of_lading) AS bols FROM bols WHERE (actual_arrival_date >= toDate('2026-01-01') AND actual_arrival_date <= toDate('2026-12-31')) AND trimBoth(unloading_port) != '' AND upperUTF8(trim(extract(trimBoth(unloading_port), ',\\s*([A-Z]{2})\\s*$'))) IN ('IL','IN','MI','OH','WI','IA','KS','MN','MO','NE','ND','SD') AND shipper_lat != 0 AND shipper_lon != 0 AND shipper_city != '' GROUP BY city, country ORDER BY bols DESC LIMIT 400
places · 8 rows 
SELECT upperUTF8(trim(extract(trimBoth(unloading_port), ',\\s*([A-Z]{2})\\s*$'))) AS name, uniqExact(bill_of_lading) AS bols, uniqExact(unloading_port) AS ports, uniqExact(consignee_name) AS firms, uniqExact(shipper_name) AS partners FROM bols WHERE (actual_arrival_date >= toDate('2026-01-01') AND actual_arrival_date <= toDate('2026-12-31')) AND trimBoth(unloading_port) != '' AND upperUTF8(trim(extract(trimBoth(unloading_port), ',\\s*([A-Z]{2})\\s*$'))) IN ('IL','IN','MI','OH','WI','IA','KS','MN','MO','NE','ND','SD') GROUP BY name ORDER BY bols DESC LIMIT 30