The pullback in transports has been quicker and swifter than anyone imagined. Maybe trains are cool? (Jim Allen/FreightWaves) I’m not really a “train person,” but you do have to admire this picture. Spot van rates in trucking are down 31% since the beginning of this year, with some truck drivers reporting that rising diesel and plummeting rates have already harmed their business.Įven our mighty railroads are reporting a 3% year-to-date decline in volumes across the board, with only carloads of coal, chemicals and “stone, sand and gravel” (aka, frac sand) increasing. FreightWaves forecast this week that ocean shipping volumes will “drop off a cliff” by this summer, based on slumping bookings out of China. Spot rates have plummeted even faster marketplace Freightos said rates from China to the West Coast are down 38% month-over-month. The cost to move a container from Asia to a major port in North America or Europe has sunk by 23% since the beginning of this year, according to maritime research firm Drewry. While the rest of the economy debates whether things are that bad, it’s been clear for months to logistics providers that the situation has worsened - and the velocity of that change is still stunning. Glum transportation indicators confirm the bad vibesĪ downturn, if not a full-on recession, is clear in the transportation world. What’s shocking us all is how quickly the situation changed. No one is shocked that what goes up must go down. Record-setting inflation – particularly for gas – is only adding to the premonitions, as Vox’s Emily Stewart wrote Wednesday in a piece aptly titled “The bad vibes economy.” But even as things feel bad, many still cast doubt that we’re headed for a recession this year, pointing out persistently low unemployment and the fact that certain indicators, while not as strong as the beginning of this year, are still unusually healthy. More and more spooky recession signs are cropping up seemingly every day, ranging from cooling housing starts to meek GDP growth, all amid the Fed tightening rates. And movie theaters, offices, planes and other locales many eschewed during the pandemic were poised to bounce back the omicron wave appeared mild compared to previous bouts of the coronavirus. Companies were desperate for someone, anyone, to come work for them. Too peachy, one could argue: People were buying so much stuff that our ports and terminals could barely handle the massive import volume. It’s an about-face from the beginning of 2022, when things were economically pretty peachy. Overstocking at Target, Walmart, Amazon, and other big retailers are the latest unexpected red flag for what’s happening in the economy.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |