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John’s Blog
3-8-10
Dear Friends,
As I write this week’s message I am
attending the International Warehouse Logistics Association (IWLA)
annual conference. The 119th annual conference is well
attended and packed with good information. I presented on current
trends in Food Safety along with Patrick O’Conner who is our trade
association’s representative in Washington DC.
In last weeks news we learned that the
unemployment rate held at 9.7% giving hope that perhaps employment
losses are stabilizing. The Labor Department reported that employers
cut 36,000 jobs which is the fewest number of February jobs reduced
in two years. Service industries led the way by adding 24,000 jobs.
The US Census Bureau revised their
report to show growth in factory orders in January although at lower
numbers than initially reported. Overall the growth is still
positive.
In transportation, intermodal rail
traffic increased 17.5% when compared to the same week from the
previous year. The AAR said that intermodal volume grew 205,817
units the week ending February 27th with containers up by
23.2% and trailers falling 6.4%.
Freight traffic excluding intermodal
grew 2.6% to 290,261 carloads.
The rise in container traffic is
reflected in the Port Tracker numbers showing an increase in
containers flowing into our nation’s ports. The National Retail
Federation is forecasting that traffic will increase in the single
digits and expects that by summer the economy will improve escalating
import container growth to double digit increases.
It appears that retailers are ready to
stock up as the economy improves.
At Wagner we are ready to help your
company with any supply chain challenges. Please don’t hesitate to
call if we may help with any stocking initiatives or transportation
challenges.
Wagner has the people and technology to
perform for you.
Have a great week!
John
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