Intermodal shipping: IANA  report says quarterly and annual volumes down

Jeff Berman, Senior Editor -- Logistics Management, 2/11/2008

CALVERTON, Md.—Due to varying market conditions, including growth in domestic container volume and a decline in import traffic, intermodal volume totals for the fourth quarter of 2007 and the full year were down, according to Intermodal Market Trends & Statistics, a quarterly report published by the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA).

The report noted that total fourth quarter volume came in at 3,521,945 loadings, which trailed the fourth quarter of 2006’s output of 3,580,575 by 1.6 percent. While this performance was down on a year-over-year basis, IANA said that domestic traffic was up 2.7 percent at 1,503,108 loadings despite the fact that the U.S. economy is on the brink of a recession. Bringing overall volumes down is the continued decline in international intermodal volume, which was down 4.7 percent—at 2,018,837 loadings—compared to the fourth quarter of 2006 and off 2.0 percent—at 8,335,480—on an annual basis.  

Domestically Speaking: While domestic is ahead of international in terms of volume percentage, it lags behind international in terms of actual volume itself—a trend which has remained the same in the Market Trends report in past editions. IANA Vice President of Member Services Tom Malloy told LM in an interview today that the economic slump currently happening has reduced the demand for internationally sourced cargoes unequivocally because things like housing and energy costs are reducing consumer spending, coupled with the fact that discretionary income for many consumers has “atrophied.”

“The parking lots are full at the big box retailers, but people are not spending as much,” said Malloy. “This has hindered inventory flows and the drawback in international volume and the increase in domestic.”

The report noted that the domestic containers were up 9.5 percent at 939,469 for the fourth quarter and 9.3 percent at 3,598,006 for 2007. Malloy said this is due in part to a strong 2007 by Intermodal Marketing Companies (IMCs), with IMC loads up 3.7 percent in 2007. IMCs performance, said Malloy, is reflected in the quarterly and annual domestic container numbers. And he added that domestic containers have been the beneficiary of pure TL and LTL carriers utilizing domestic carriers in line-haul operations.

Records on the horizon?: While the third quarter of 2007 was the second-best quarterly performance ever, according to IANA, the fourth quarter did not make the cut. As for any record-breaking quarters in 2008, Malloy said it is too early to tell at this point.

“The 2007 numbers—down 1.1 percent overall [at 14,078,952] were not at bad as I thought they might be,” said Malloy. “Based on economic factors in 2008, it does not appear there may be any record-setting quarters this year, because of the economic slowdown and reduced consumer demand. For the year, it appears there will be tepid to moderate growth, if at all.”