No, shipping is the most efficient.

Not only are drag loses comparatively small, those two stroke diesels are crazy efficient from a thermodynamic point of view (massive, slow, and high compression ratio -> crazy efficiency).

It's so efficient that barge transport is still preferred to rail where a navigable river is available.

It's efficient in the sense that if you compare kgs of goods per km, but it's not efficient when you consider the great distances ships travel versus producing goods domestically, just to put those same goods on rail and trucks anyway.

If you consider the efficiency of shipping finished goods versus shipping the raw material (and, possibly, labor) necessary to produce the goods domestically, how does that affect the comparison?

This statement seems to assume the same shipping of raw materials isn't taking place elsewhere.

Ore goes from the mine, to the forge, the raw steel goes to the manufacturer. That probably requires a bit of shipping, doesn't matter which country it takes place in.

> > Bear in mind that shipping is also the most energy efficient form of bulk transportation (vs land or air).

> I was under the impression that rail transport was. Is that not correct?

It may depend a lot on distance and modernity of rail tech, and also the availability of direct land routes.