John’s Blog

May 11, 2009

Dear Friends,

The economy continues to be the main topic in transportation logistics circles.  While optimism is reflected in the stock market, transportation logistics firms are still feeling the economic pinch with dramatically reduced volumes.

Fuel costs dropped today 1.6 cents to a national average of $2.185 but crude oil is trading up around a five month high of $57 per barrel.  As I have said before, the increase in oil is coming from a perceived improvement in the economy around the world and all commodities will be trading up in anticipation of this higher demand.

With the United States Postal Service losing almost Two Billion dollars and other service providers taking a lesser beating, the race is on to see who the survivors will be.

At Wagner Industries we are fortunate to have customers who are weathering the current economy and our volumes are increasing.  I will be profiling our locations in the weeks to come.  This week let’s talk about Jacksonville FL.

A retail customer brought us into this market many years ago where we performed vendor consolidations for shipments into Puerto Rico and south Florida.  Since that time we have added paper clients who utilize Wagner for servicing the entire southeastern market as we have good CSX switching with 15 rail doors.  We also perform distribution fulfillment for a client in the telecommunications equipment industry.

Our 319,000 sq ft facility is located in northeast Jacksonville close to the airport, I-95, and the AB brewery.  We are only 7 miles from the growing port of Jacksonville where MOL, Maersk, and Crowley have expanded service.  Due to the deep channel, JAXPORT plans on giving other ports a lot of competition.

Our Jacksonville General Manager is Susan Maldonado and she has a solid team of associates with the capacity to add and service additional customers. 

If we may help you in Jacksonville or any other Wagner location we welcome the conversation.

Have a great week!

John

John’s Blog

May 5^th 2009

Dear Friends,

The Institute of Supply Management’s manufacturing index jumped up by 3.8 percentage points in April.  This is the highest level in eight months although still showing weakness at 40.1 percent. 

Putting a positive spin on it, this is the fourth straight month of improvement.

The Institute of Supply Management’s new order index showed even better improvement showing growth in April of six percent.  This is the highest level of order growth since August of last year.

 Inventory levels continue to fall which means manufacturers are selling down inventories before replenishment can take place.  Inventories were reported to have fallen 4.5 percent.

While I could talk about the fall off in freight in March and the continued weakness in motor carriers, railroads, ocean and air, there seems to be a mood & attitude that things are very slowly improving.

Oil is slowly rising which indicates the belief there will be future demand for fuel, lending is being reported by the banks, and the spirit of America, an optimistic people, is overcoming these dark days. 

At Wagner we are dealing with the affects of the recession by taking a hard look at costs, efficiency improvements, and bringing on new customers for revenue enhancement.  Should you have a need for distribution warehousing, fulfillment, transportation, or packaging, Wagner would love an opportunity to compete for your business.

Have a great week!

John