Board Converting News, November 15, 2021

Transport Panelists: No Quick Fix In Sight To Move Freight

NAM: Manufacturing (CONT’D FROM PAGE 6)

orders increased 0.7 percent in September. Overall, the manufacturing sector continues to expand strongly—de- spite significant challenges—with new orders soaring 10.2 percent year to date. Private manufacturing construction spending declined 1.6 percent to $72.42 billion in September, falling to a five- month low. While construction activity in the manufactur- ing sector has risen 4.7 percent year-over-year, spending remains 4.9 percent below the $76.16 billion in activity re- corded in February 2020. As expected, the Federal Open Market Committee has decided to start tapering its asset purchases later this month. The Federal Reserve has been purchasing as much as $80 billion in Treasury securities and $40 billion in agency mortgage-backed securities each month since the beginning of the pandemic. It will start scaling that back by $15 billion in November, another $15 billion in De- cember, and so on, likely ending these purchases entirely by mid-2022. The U.S. trade deficit rose from $72.81 billion in August to a record $80.93 billion in September. Goods exports fell sharply for the month, with goods imports rising. The volatility in the September data likely stemmed from ongo- ing supply chain difficulties, including the chip shortage. Growth in goods imports has outpaced the increase in goods exports year to date.

According to an article on Transport Topic’s website at ttnews.com , fixing the severely kinked supply chain will take well into 2022, requiring unprecedented cooperation among trucking, freight rail, ocean carriers, ports and ship- pers. Those were some of four experts’ conclusions during a panel discussion October 25 at American Trucking Asso- ciations’ Management Conference & Exhibition. “The problems we are having here in terms of port and inland congestion, the difficulties in getting labor and keeping cargo and equipment moving as opposed to sit- ting still, these things are happening all over the world,” World Shipping Council President John Butler said. “For all of this to unwind, at least from the ocean shipping side, we need to see improvement in ports all over the world, pretty much at the same time.” The Southern California facilities at Los Angeles and Long Beach are gaining most of the attention regarding the supply chain tie-ups. Yet Association of American Railroads President Ian Jefferies said freight rail hubs, in- cluding Chicago, have had a backlog since at least spring, which in turn is causing problems for trucking, as the two sectors often cooperate on freight delivery. “At one point, one railroad had 20 intermodal trains

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8 November 15, 2021

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