Archive for the ‘CHEMICAL’ Category

“Grow America Act” Welcomed by U.S. Supply Chain Managers

The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) introduced The GROW AMERICA Act, a six-year, $478 million transportation reauthorization bill yesterday. Specific components of the GROW AMERICA act include: 
$317 billion towards the nation’s highway and road safety, which will increase the amount of highway funds by an average of about 29 percent above FY 2015 […]

Railroads Caught by Speed of Crude-Oil Collapse

The slowdown that North American railroad companies had been bracing for in crude oil shipments has turned into a rout, with volumes falling faster than executives had predicted. With energy companies scaling back drilling after prices for the commodity fell about 50% since July, industry executives and analysts anticipated that demand for hauling crude and […]

Flatbed Demand Picks Up in Spot Market

The spot freight market was mixed last week as load availability decreased 3.9% and capacity crept upward by 6.6%, according to the latest numbers from DAT. Flatbed activity picked up, reefer loads fell, and van freight was steady. Flatbed load ability grew 7.7%, and capacity fell 2.4% for the week. The flatbed load-to-truck ratio also […]

Port of New Orleans setting new cargo throughput records

2014 was a very good year for the Port of New Orleans, and officials there are forecasting an even more robust cargo scenario in 2015. New Orleans had an all-time container mark of 490,526 twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) in 2014 and officials here are forecasting well over 500,000 TEUs for 2015.

LTL Profit Revival in The Works

The once-beleaguered $35 billion less-than-truckload (LTL) sector, beset by stagnant growth and lackluster profits for much of the past decade, is enjoying a revival. Mostly because of the strong industrial and retail economy, as well as tightness in capacity due to the lack of any new entrants in the past 10 years, the LTL sector […]

Oil Prices May Have Further to Fall

Oil bulls got another piece of bad news today from an unlikely source: the Federal Reserve. U.S. crude production has continued to rise in spite of the collapse in oil prices. The Fed’s oil extraction index clocked in at a seasonally adjusted 179.8 in February. That’s up 0.4 percent from January and 14.4 percent from […]

Flatbeds Post Only Increase in Spot Market Rates Over Past Week

The average flatbed rate on the spot market picked up a little more steam while rates in the other two sectors remained stable as both the number of loads to move and truck capacity increased. According to DAT Solutions network of load boards, flatbeds increased 1.4% the second week of the month compared to the […]

Factory Production Drops for Third Consecutive Month

Factory production in the U.S. declined in February for a third consecutive month, a sign cutbacks in manufacturing will hold back economic growth this quarter. The 0.2% decrease at manufacturers followed a 0.3% drop in January that was initially estimated as a gain, figures from the Federal Reserve in Washington showed March 16. Total industrial […]