<\/p>\n
America\u2019s network for moving goods into and around the country is the busiest in years after being throttled by the pandemic, providing vital support for an economic rebound that\u2019s moderating in other areas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ports are seeing a flood of container imports while railroads and trucks rush those goods \u2014 as well as domestically produced merchandise and materials \u2014 to distribution points. The surge in activity has its roots in the shutdown of the economy that left businesses reliant on inventories, which are now extremely lean as demand accelerates.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The restocking has led to record container imports into the Port of Los Angeles and boosted intermodal carload numbers for the nation\u2019s railroads. It all adds up to vital support for the economic rebound amid a stalemate over government relief and the lack of a coronavirus vaccine.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Steady factory production and a busy transportation network will help fuel hiring, hours worked and incomes. That, in turn, can further bolster consumption, which has slowed from rapid gains from the depths of the pandemic.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cA positive feedback loop is underway,\u201d Neil Dutta, head of U.S. economic research at Renaissance Macro Research, said in an email. \u201cIt can be especially strong this time around since the inventory shortfall is quite large.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At the Port of Los Angeles, the biggest U.S. container port, imports of 20-foot equivalent units climbed to an all-time high of 516,286 in August. With economies around the world stirring to life and looking to restock, shipping costs have accelerated and, by one measure, are the highest in eight years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Since May, \u201cthere has been a significant replenishment of warehouse inventories,\u201d Gene Seroka, the port\u2019s executive director, said in a statement. \u201cCoupled with retailers planning for consumer holiday spending, it has created a surge of imports.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Railroad car loadings have increased in concert with the pickup in seaborne trade. It\u2019s also been powered by retailer preparations for the holiday-shopping season and a shift in consumer shopping preferences to the internet from the storefront.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Union Pacific Corp. Chief Executive Officer Lance Fritz told a conference Sept. 9 that \u201cdemand is at or near peak season levels,\u201d driven by e-commerce and inventory restocking.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Railroads have benefited from a tight trucking market. A gauge of U.S. trucking conditions, which includes measures of freight volumes, rates and capacity, rebounded sharply in June. While the index cooled in July, \u201cthe near-term outlook remains favorable for carriers,\u201d Avery Vise, vice president of trucking for Freight Transportation Research Associates, said on the company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
FedEx Corp. expects \u201ca peak holiday shipping season like no other in our company\u2019s history,\u201d Chief Operating Officer Rajesh Subramaniam said on the company\u2019s earnings call last week. He also said FedEx will add 70,000 jobs across the U.S.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The jump in e-commerce prompted the package-delivery company to pull forward by three years to 2023 its forecast for when U.S. shipments will total 100 million a day. FedEx said on the call that services spending has shifted to goods, and pent-up demand has given that a boost.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Investors have taken notice. The rush to replenish from both international and domestic producers powered the Dow Jones Transportation Average to a record high last week, though it\u2019s since pulled back with the rest of the stock market.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2020 Bloomberg L.P.<\/em><\/p>\n gCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" America\u2019s network for moving goods into and around the country is the busiest in years after being throttled by the pandemic, providing vital support for an economic rebound that\u2019s moderating in other areas. Ports are seeing a flood of container imports while railroads and trucks rush those goods \u2014 as well as domestically produced merchandise …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1739,2908,5098,3624,9084,6261,2383,11513],"class_list":["post-18008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-ahead","tag-commerce","tag-economic","tag-full","tag-means","tag-steam","tag-support","tag-vital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/14616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}