E-Commerce, Coal and Semiconductors Register Economic Health

The latest Logistics Market Snapshot, from the Georgia Center of Innovation, highlights three positive industry trends which portend positive news for logistics practitioners:

• E-commerce sales are expected to reach $414 billion by 2018, up from a projected $294 billion in 2014. Of the $294 billion this year, $87 billion of online transactions will come from mobile devices. In-store purchases are expected to grow by $300 billion by 2018. (Source: Forrester Research)
• U.S. railroads originated 570,722 carloads of coal in April 2014, up 6.4% over April 2013 and the best year-over-year gain for coal since January 2011. U.S. railroads also originated 104,946 carloads of grain, up 27.6% over the previous year and the largest year-over-year gain on record. (Source: AAR.org)
• Worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $78.47 billion during Q1 2014, the industry's highest-ever first quarter sales. March 2014 had an increase of 11.4% from the same month last year marking the industry's largest year-over-year increase in more than three years. (Source: WSTS.org)

Other highlights from this report:

Transportation Indexes:

• Dow Jones Transportation index rose 3.9% during the month of April. (Stock performance of twenty large, well-known U.S. companies in the transportation industry, average of April 10th thru May 10th)

• NASDAQ Transportation Index increased 3.8% in April.

(Averaged share weights of NASDAQ-listed companies classified as transportation companies, average of April 10th thru May 10th.

• The April shipments index rose 1.5% over the previous month and rose 5.5% year-over-year. The April expenditures index rose 2.8% for the month, and increased 10% year-over-year. (Source: Cass Information Systems | Cassinfo.com) (Based upon transportation dollars and shipments of Cass clients comprised of over 400 shipping companies)

Rail:

• Railroad bulk carload freight in April 2014 rose 1.0% from March 2014. Freight traffic in April rose 6.4% from April 2013. Carloads excluding coal increased 6.3% over the previous year. (Source: AAR.org) (Report includes rail car-loadings by 19 different major commodity categories as well as intermodal units)

• Intermodal rail traffic in April 2014 was 9.0% higher than in April 2013, and rose 1.1% from March 2014. Intermodal loadings have experienced year-over-year gains for 53 straight months. (Source: AAR.org) (Report includes rail car-loadings by 19 different major commodity categories as well as intermodal units)

Trucking:

• The ATA’s seasonally adjusted cargo index rose 0.6% in March. The for-hire truck tonnage index rose 3.1% from March 2013. (Source: American Trucking Association | Trucking.org)

• The spot market for truckload freight in April fell 8.6% compared to the previous month, and was 58% higher year-over-year. Truck capacity rose 30% for the month, and was down 5.8% year-over-year. (Source: DAT Trendlines | www.dat.com)

• Orders for heavy-duty Class 8 trucks in North America are expected to total 24,115 units in April 2014. April orders were 11% lower than the previous month and 5% higher year-over-year. (Source: FTR Associates | ftrassociates.com)

Air:

• Global air freight traffic in March increased 5.9% from one year ago, and rose 4.0% from the previous month. North American air freight in March rose 1.9% year-over-year. (Source: IATA.org) (Global air freight covers international and domestic scheduled air traffic.)

• In March, the index of East-West air cargo rates rose 6.8% from the previous month, and was 6.1% higher year-over-year. The average price of air cargo leaving the United States in March stood at $3.34 per kilogram. (Source: Drewry) (The Drewry East-West Air Freight Price Index is based on the average of rates ($US per kg) for air freight services on 21 major East-West routes.)

Ocean Freight:

• U.S. vessel imports in January 2014 totaled nearly 1.6 million TEUs, up 5.7% from the previous year. The number of shipments in January totaled 802,948 units, a 6.9% increase year-over-year. (Source: Zepol Corporation | zepol.com)

• Import volume through major U.S. container ports is expected to increase 3.5% in May from the same month last year. In March, the latest month for which numbers are available, U.S. container ports handled 1.3 million TEUs, a 5.1% increase from the previous month and a 14.5% increase from the same month last year. Total U.S. containerized imports are expected to increase 5.1% in the first half of 2014. (Source: NRF/Hackett Associates)

Warehousing:

• The U.S. average industrial vacancy rate was 8.3% during Q1 2014, equal to the vacancy rate in the previous quarter. (Source: Cassidy Turley)

• In Q1 2014, warehouse and distribution rental rates in the US averaged $5.11 per square foot, up from $5.06/SF in the previous quarter. (Source: Cassidy Turley)

Employment

• The unemployment rate in America fell to 6.3% in April 2014 as there were 288,000 net new jobs. The Participation rate however fell from a 6-month high of 63.2% back to 62.8%. (Source: US DOL)

• The trucking industry workforce added 6,800 employees in April. The trucking workforce increased 1.5% over the previous year. (Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Economic Indicators:

• The Consumer Confidence Index increased to 84.1 in April 2014, up 4.1 points from the previous month. (Source: The Conference Board) (The consumer confidence index is based on a monthly survey of 5,000 U.S. household. It is designed to gauge the financial health, spending power, and confidence of the average U.S. consumer.)

• The Leading Economic Index for the U.S. increased 0.8% in March to 100.9 (2004=100), following at 0.5% increase in February and a 0.2% decrease in January. (Source: Conference Board) (The LEI is a composite of 10 economic indicators that together create an analytic system designed to signal peaks and troughs in the business cycle. The LEI reveals patterns in economic data in a clearer and more convincing manner than any individual component alone.)

•  The consumer price index for all urban consumers increased 0.2% in March from the previous month. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 1.5%. The producer price index for finished goods rose 0.6% in April from the previous month. Prices for finished goods rose 2.1% over the previous year. (Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics)