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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Housing starts were up 2.6 percent in April at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 717,000 compared to March’s revised estimate. This represents a 29.9 percent year-over-year gain from April 2011. A nearly 30 percent increase. What exactly does that tell us—that a year ago at this time housing starts were still basically terrible or that things are really getting better. I suspect that it is a combination of both.

YRC Freight President Jeff Rogers said the decision to add drivers is due to the fact that “YRC Freight is growing and our volumes are building.”

At a time when truckload capacity remains fairly tight and is expected to remain that way, freight brokerages appear to be reaping the benefits. That was a central theme in a recent report issued by TransCore,

Cara Donna Provision Company was a one-man operation selling fresh deli meat to local Boston businesses. Now, two generations later, the company has grown to become the largest family run and managed broad line food service distributor in all of New England.

Minimize short-term disruptions to gain the agility needed to take on long-term disruptions.

Despite ongoing uncertainty in Europe, exports are expected to remain a driving force of Germany's economic strength

Expectations for second quarter and into third quarter are not high as many providers expect little increase in freight at best

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

April container volumes for the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) were markedly improved over March, with the port announcing that container volumes for the month represented the single best output for the month of April in POLA history.

Today, the benefits of sourcing from low cost countries and selling into new foreign markets are driving the vast majority of enterprise-class companies to go global. However, many of these companies are still making due with sub-standard global processes and technologies borrowed from domestic organizations.

Commerce reported that April retail sales at $408.0 billion were up 0.1 percent over March and 6.4 percent higher than April 2011.The NRF reported that April retail sales, which exclude autos, gas stations, and restaurants, were down 0.1 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis from March and up 2.8 percent on an unadjusted basis annually.