The U.S. economy adds 678,000 payroll jobs in February.
•Crude, diesel prices soar in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
•Retail inventories see another solid increase.
•The surge in new trucking companies continues in February.
•Volatility is the order of the day for rail volumes.
It is widely known that there is a shortage of semiconductors on a global scale that is affecting production in a host of industries. Goldman Sachs says 169 industries are affected by the crunch. The poster child for the shortage seems to be the global auto manufacturing industry, where lost production affects tens of thousands of workers and a great deal of lost revenue.
2021 was a challenge for the intermodal industry. Coming off the pandemic-dented 2020, 2021 dawned with the promise and hope of better consistency and growth for intermodal and the supply chain in general.
TRUCKING: Trucking conditions improve, but they might have finally peaked.
RAILCAR: Carload volumes are being held back by four main commodities to start 2022.
INTERMODAL: International volumes remained weak in December and face near-term headwinds to growth in 2022.
SHIPPERS: Fuel costs are proving to be the difference between tough and really tough market conditions.
We provide in-depth market analysis and forecasting in our Truck & Trailer Outlook intelligence service.
The U.S. economy adds 467,000 payroll jobs in January.
• Job openings and quits remain close to record levels.
• The number of newly authorized trucking companies remained high in January.
•Diesel rises to its highest price since August 2014 as crude tops $90 a barrel.
• Rail carload and intermodal volumes remain stuck in neutral.
With the technological explosion of data and the rise of social media platforms, the world is faced with new challenges coming from these technological developments. The changes in data collection and analysis are changing the way we do business and are having political and economic impacts that we have only begun to understand.
Watch consumers, supply chains, and the pandemic, of course.
A year ago, we were forecasting a solid 2021, but forecast risks appeared to be mostly to the downside. In some cases, we correctly predicted a result but did not anticipate the cause. For example, recovery in employment was slowing, but the issue seemed to be one of weak demand, not tight supply.
Prospects for 2022 are bright, as the global economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and loss of economic activity associated with the shutdowns of key economic drivers, aimed to slow the spread of the disease.
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