The volume of debt issuance by Australian and New Zealand companies in the US capital markets fell in 2018, continuing a trend that has been in progress for the past few years.Law firm Baker McKenzie identified 30 US debt offers completed by Australian and New Zealand companies last year, down from 36 deals in 2017.The volume of deals has fallen 36.2 per cent from a peak of 47 debt issues in 2014.In a note to clients, Baker McKenzie partner Andrew Reilly said the fall last year was due to a significant reduction in the number of investment grade and high yield bond offers under Rule 144A."It is interesting to note that a few Australian issuers that had previously accessed the 144A market instead accessed the Australian and Asian debt markets in 2018, including to repay their US dollar bonds."Westpac was the biggest US debt issuer with two SEC-registered deals worth a total of US$5.5 billion.Tabcorp, Port of Melbourne, Ausgrid and Australian Pacific LNG all completed deals worth more than US$1 billion, and Computershare, Amcor and Fortescue all did deals worth more than US$500 million.The volume of equity issues in the US (mostly private placements) increased from 50 to 53 deals - the highest level of deals since 2009. Since 2013, when there were 29 US equity issues by Australian and New Zealand companies, volume has grown by 82.7 per cent.The biggest equity issuer was Transurban, which completed a A$4.2 billion private placement to US investors. Other issuers with equity deals above A$1 billion included WorleyParsons, Viva Energy, Woodside Petroleum and Reliance Worldwide.