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PIERS for Government
PIERS provides cargo intelligence solutions for Government agencies to accomplish their missions of risk assessment, enforcement, policy-making, and program administration.
PIERS Resources

The PIERS database is a unique source for information about containerized, bulk and break bulk cargo.

Based on the manifests and bills of lading that document import-export activity, and checked by our reporters in port, PIERS data is the most timely, accurate, comprehensive information available on trade through U.S. ports as well as key points of entry in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

Learn more about the value-added and quality control that make the PIERS database unique.

PIERS Maritime Research Reports are standard references for the maritime industry, providing insight on the past, present and future of U.S. container trade.

PIERS Maritime Research Group – including economists, researchers, statisticians and information specialists – serves the maritime industry, regulatory authorities and government agencies with custom research and consulting.

Learn more about PIERS Maritime Research.
PIERS History

Launched over 30 years ago by The Journal of Commerce as the Port Import Export Reporting Service, PIERS today is the primary source of U.S. waterborne trade information.

PIERS is the standard reference on container trade volumes used by the maritime industry to plan capacity and set rates and by government agencies to track cargoes and traffic.

PIERS trade data is also relied upon by over 6,000 private- and public-sector clients in over 40 countries as the source for actionable intelligence.

PIERS Solutions

PIERS data on U.S. waterborne trade is used by federal, state and local government agencies – including the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Justice and Transportation – to set policy and conduct operations.

PIERS data supplies a wealth of detail on nearly 100 individual fields for imports and exports, including:
• Shipper
• Consignee
• Detailed commodity description
• Container number
• Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs)		 • Vessel name
• Port origin, destination and transshipment
• English and local language data
• And more…
PIERS helps governments accomplish …
Risk-Based Assessment:
• Managing security risks
• Cargo monitoring
• Anomaly recognition
• Threat detection
• Pattern recognition
• Trade resumption
• Modeling simulation
• Trade resiliency
• Emergency preparedness
• Maritime Domain Awareness
 Enforcement:
• Cargo monitoring
• Anomaly recognition
• Threat detection
• Pattern recognition
• Counterfeit detection
• Research verification
• Asset forfeiture confirmation
• Trade lane research
• Commodity research
• Port security
Policy-Making:
• Trade understanding
• Trade revenue verification
• Pattern recognition
• Trade resumption
• Economic analysis
• Intellectual property for anti dumping cases
• Research verification
• Modeling simulation
• Emergency preparedness
• Trade lane research
• Commodity research
 Program Management:
• Trade resiliency
• Trade resumption
• Economic analysis
• Trade understanding
• Trade lane research
• Commodity research
• Trade revenue verification
• Asset forfeiture confirmation
• Modeling simulation
• Emergency preparedness
Recent Applications
Attack of the Clones
The car may be exported, but its cloned VIN can stay behind to cover illegal traffic.
Read more >
 Bright Outlook for Ag Exports
The USDA uses PIERS data to report ocean transport trends. Read more >		 Detecting Dumping
PIERS makes it easier to monitor shipping for below-market-price imports.
Read more >		 A Few Good Sources
The Army Corps of Engineers relies on PIERS to guide its planning.
Read more >
 

“There really isn’t an alternative resource comparable to PIERS for coded transportation data.”
-Susan Hassett, Foreign Program Manager, Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center, Army Corps of Engineers

Learn more about PIERS solutions for government:
Contact GovernmentRelations@piers.com