Quote:
Originally Posted by OrdoSeclorum
I'm not an expert so just playing devil's advocate. My understanding was that ORD's rise as a port was due to being the #1 place where iPhones enter the U.S. Obviously a palette of iPhones is incredibly value dense and measuring by value and not by weight or some similar metric might not give a real sense of the port's importance. If it was #1 for several valuable raw materials, components or perishable goods it might mean more for the local economy for reasons of co-localization.
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Of course there is 0% chance that an airport would ever beat a seaport in terms of cargo
weight. A couple shipments of gravel would beat O'Hare in that metric. But O'Hare's importance to international trade is not
just iPhones, it's basically the hub for all high-end electronics and I believe pharmaceuticals as well.
I'd imagine there are also good arguments to be made in favor of being the hub for high-value trade vs the hub for low-value bulk trade. I'm not knowledgeable on the subject though.