Monday, September 7, 2020

Logistics Report On Labor Day, September 7, 2020

Yesterday I posted this on the blog:

There are so many opportunities out there. I just can't believe it. One needs to remember, if the economy comes back:

  • buzz on the street: truck manufacturers can't keep up: their problem? getting parts from suppliers still hamstrung by the pandemic;
  • investment funds make bid to buy Kansas City Southern;
  • transportation: trucks, trains, and automobiles (seriously: DashDoor, GrubHub, Uber Eats)

Three "logistics" stories currently running in The Wall Street Journal:

Next on the list:

  • this has not been reported yet but we will soon see stories of huge volumes of wheat, corn, soybeans, other agricultural products being shipped to China to avert major famine / disaster

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. 

From the second-linked story above:

Container imports are flowing back into the U.S. after a six-month hiatus, with U.S. retailers knocked back by pandemic-driven lockdowns now stocking up before the holiday season.

The demand is filling up container ships across the Pacific and operators are restoring cargo-vessel sailings that were cut by as much as a third at the height of the pandemic closures from March to June.

August “will more than likely be” the best August in the history of the Port of Los Angeles, Gene Seroka, executive director of the port, the largest U.S. gateway for seaborne container imports, said this week.

Vessel bookings for the coming weeks suggest “September will be strong as well,” he said. “Retailers are currently restocking and redeveloping their inventories at their distribution centers and on their store shelves.”

The Port of Los Angeles said dockworkers there were handling 15 container ships on Thursday. In the spring, the average daily number of ships was about half that amount.

“Capacity from Asia to the U.S. West Coast is 25% higher than it was in May and around 7% on year,” said Jonathan Roach, a shipping analyst at London-based Braemar ACM Shipbroking. “We have seen a surge in short-term demand out of America.”

And more:

Trade-data-analysis company Panjiva Inc. said U.S. sales of household appliances soared 50% in the first half of the third quarter from a year earlier, while consumer-electronics imports rose 5% in the period. Imports of televisions by Best Buy rose 11% over the same period, Panjiva said.

“July was the best month since January,” said Sam Ruda, the port director at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “E-commerce is dominant and August will be stronger. We see rising volumes coming in from the home goods stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s and from electronics retailers.”

At the facility overseen by Mr. Ruda, the largest container port on the East Coast, cargo volumes fell 7.9% in the first seven months of the year from a year earlier, including a 22% drop in loaded container imports in May. But the overall box tally jumped in July by 100,000 from the number handled in June.

2 comments:

  1. with First time Home buying going thru roof, that means anything that goes in a house will be sold for this First New home. This will also cut into new cars and vacations ,cause if painting the wall and doing maintenance one can not go on vaca. don

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    1. A lot of moving parts right now that a new school year has started; re-location moves have probably peaked (for that very reason -- schools). You are correct: folks will now hunker down and begin work on their new homes. I don't foresee much traveling for pleasure until next spring.

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