| Houston A Center of World Trade | | | | much of the nation's rice and cotton is grown. Large |
| The busy Port of Houston usually ranks second | | | | numbers of cattle are fattened on nearby farms. |
| among United States ports in total waterborne | | | | Houston also is the heart of a major industrial area. |
| commerce. It averages almost 60 million tons a year. | | | | Value added by manufacture in the metropolitan area |
| Outgoing domestic cargoes of crude petroleum and | | | | each year is about 1.5 billion dollars. Some 40 percent |
| petroleum products, carried mainly in tankers moving | | | | come from the output of chemicals, chemical |
| through the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway, make up | | | | products, and refined petroleum. Included are basic |
| about half the total tonnage. | | | | chemicals as well as plastics, paints, fertilizers, and |
| Many tons of seashells, source of lime for the city's | | | | synthetic rubber and fibers. |
| chemical plants, are shipped for short distances | | | | The main manufacturing district straddles the Houston |
| through the port. There is also heavy domestic | | | | Ship Channel. Here the concentration of oil refineries |
| traffic in clays and earths; coal; cement; iron and | | | | and petrochemical plants is almost unmatched |
| steel products; and raw sulphur, phosphate rock, and | | | | anywhere in the world. Roughly 8 percent of all |
| other chemicals. | | | | United States oil-refinery production comes from the |
| Foreign trade, mostly exports, accounts for about | | | | Houston metropolitan area. To serve this industry the |
| one fifth of the total tonnage. Large shipments of | | | | city has become a leading producer of oilfield |
| wheat and other grains are sent overseas. Exports | | | | machinery and equipment. It also is a national focus |
| also include raw cotton, petroleum products, | | | | for pipelines carrying crude petroleum, petroleum |
| chemicals, iron and steel scrap, machinery, and lumber. | | | | products, and natural gas. |
| Leading imports are fuel oil, steel products, iron ore, | | | | Other leading industries in and near Houston are the |
| coffee, molasses, sugar, rubber, and paper. | | | | manufacture of food products- meat, flour, rice, |
| The Houston Ship Channel is the heart of the port. It | | | | molasses, dairy and cottonseed products, beverages, |
| penetrates some 50 miles inland through the shallows | | | | and baked goods and of iron and steel and fabricated |
| of Galveston Bay to the Turning Basin. Accessible to | | | | metal products, largely for the oil and chemical |
| almost any ocean vessel afloat, the channel is 36 | | | | industries. Ships, furniture, textiles, lumber and wood |
| feet deep and at least 300 feet wide. Its banks are | | | | products, tile, cement, paper and paper products, |
| lined by many miles of wharves, transit sheds, grain | | | | bags and bagging, printed matter, industrial machinery, |
| elevators, bulk-handling facilities, and railroad spurs. | | | | and scientific instruments also are manufactured in |
| Houston is the marketing center for an area in which | | | | large quantities in Houston and the surrounding area. |