This week's national average price of diesel fuel increased as did the prices in allregions as well. The current national average for a gallon of diesel is $3.943, an increase of 0.087¢ from last week. By comparison, the national average price for a gallon of gasoline, which increased as well, is $3.523, an increase of $0.041.
Bloomberg Energy reports that as of Monday, February 13, the spot price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate oil is $100.38 which is $3.41 higher than last week's price.
Region |
Price
|
Change From
a Week Ago |
Change From
a Year Ago |
|
United States |
3.943 |
up 0.087 |
up 0.409 |
|
East Coast |
4.028 |
up 0.080 |
up 0.441 |
|
New England |
4.150 |
up 0.049 |
up 0.401 |
|
Central Atlantic |
4.128 |
up 0.082 |
up 0.428 |
|
Lower Atlantic |
3.930 |
up 0.084 |
up 0.406 |
|
Midwest |
3.857 |
up 0.106 |
up 0.378 |
|
Gulf Coast |
3.860 |
up 0.085 |
up 0.371 |
|
Rocky Mountain |
3.841 |
up 0.024 |
up 0.330 |
|
West Coast |
4.121 |
up 0.085 |
up 0.450 |
|
California |
4.209 |
up 0.081 |
up 0.462 |
02/15/2012
|
The amount of freight carried by the for-hire transportation industry rose 3.9 percent in December from November, the largest monthly rise in 17 years, which brought the level of freight shipments to an all-time high, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS) Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) released recently.
BTS reported that the level of freight shipments measured by the Freight TSI, 113.7, surpassed the previous high of 113.3 in January 2005.
Trend: Shipments in December 2011 (113.7 on the index) were at the highest level in the 22-year history of the series. After dipping to a recent low in April 2009 (94.3), freight shipments increased in 22 of the last 32 months, rising 20.6 percent during that period.
Annual: For the full year 2011, freight shipments measured by the index were up 6.4 percent, the highest full-year growth rate since 2002, and marked the third consecutive year with an increase.
Index highs and lows: Freight shipments in December 2011 (113.7 on the index) rose 20.6 percent from the recent low in April 2009 (94.3). In April 2009, freight shipments were at their lowest level since June 1997 (92.3). The December 2011 level is up 0.4 percent from the previous historic freight shipment peak reached in January 2005 (113.3).
Long-term trend: Freight shipments are up 3.6 percent in the five years from December 2006 and up 16.3 percent in the 10 years from December 2001 despite declines in recent years.
02/15/2012
|
The U.S. Postal Service ended the first three months of its 2012 fiscal year with a net loss of $3.3 billion. Management expects large losses to continue until the Postal Service has implemented its network re-design and down-sizing and has restructured its healthcare program. Additionally, the return to financial stability requires legislation which gives the Postal Service typical commercial freedoms, including delivery flexibility.
Stronger than expected holiday shipping activity, driven by strong growth in online merchandise sales and successful USPS marketing efforts, helped the Postal Service grow its competitive Shipping Services business in the first quarter, with revenue totaling $2.8 billion, an increase of $179 million or 7 percent over the same period last year.
02/15/2012
|
The U.S. Senate on a 75-20 vote approved the long-awaited reauthorization on February 7 and the bill now goes to President Barack Obama, who is expected to sign it. Approval came after more than four years of disagreement over various provisions. A Republican-led effort to weaken rules governing union organizing at airlines and railroads was resolved in a compromise between the House and Senate.
02/15/2012
|
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported that cargo markets contracted by 0.7 Percent for the year; but recorded positive demand growth in December of 0.2 Percent. Growth in demand lagged capacity increases at 4.1 Percent (cargo) putting downward pressure on load factors. The freight load factor was just 45.9 Percent, down from 48.1 Percent in 2010.
Air Freight (Domestic and International)
Air freight markets turned up at the end of the year after shrinking through much of the summer and autumn as business confidence across major economies, and export orders, slumped. Although international freight markets contracted 0.6 Percent for the full year and 0.8 Percent in December, compared to a year ago, December international demand was 1.5 Percent ahead of the level in November, while domestic demand was up 3.2 Percent compared to November and 5.5 Percent compared to December 2010. Freight markets have now shown sequential month-over-month growth in November and December, adding evidence to the view that international trade may be stabilizing.
02/15/2012
|
Container service reliability reached a new high in the final quarter of 2011 with an on-time average of 69% across all the trades covered by Drewry’s Schedule Reliability Insight report, just published.
The latest result was up by 6 percentage points over the previous quarter, meaning that schedule reliability has improved for three consecutive quarters, a feat only equaled once before between Fourth Quarter 2008 and Second Quarter 2009.
Despite the positive results, the report points out that when the previous record of 68 percent was set in the second quarter of 2009 there followed a sharp deterioration in reliability.
“Shippers will be hoping that history does not repeat itself,” said Simon Heaney, researcher manager for Schedule Reliability Insight.
The two best on-time results have been set during periods of low freight rates, which reinforces the notion that reliability and price are not directly related to one other. However, there is evidence that continued periods of low, loss-inducing rates do eventually wear away at carriers’ motivation to maintain reliability. Their commitment to reliability will be tested this year as we do not expect to see huge rate hikes.
02/15/2012
|
Senator Max Baucus passed a bipartisan plan to pay for investments in the Highway Bill through the Senate Finance Committee today. Together with the Finance Committee package that passed today, the complete two-year Highway Bill Reauthorization is expected to be considered on the Senate floor as early as this week.
The new Highway Bill maintains funding at current levels for two years, reforms the nation's transportation programs to make them more efficient, and provides assistance for transportation projects under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) - a program to leverage state, local, and private-sector funding. In addition, $9.6 billion in additional funding would come from a transfer of a $3 billion surplus from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Fund as wel las removing a tax credit on certain biofuels.
02/15/2012
|
North America medium and heavy duty GVW Classes 5-7 and Class 8 commercial vehicle preliminary net orders for January were generally in line with expectations, as reported by ACT Research Co., LLC (ACT). The final numbers, which will be released mid-February, will approach 25,200 units for heavy duty Class 8 trucks and 13,500 for medium duty Classes 5-7 vehicles. The preliminary net order numbers are typically accurate to within 5 percent of actual.
“There were no surprises with the level of order intake in January,” said Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst, ACT Research. “The preliminary net orders for both Classes 5-7 and Class 8 support our forecasts for production in 2012,” he added.
02/15/2012
|
North American freight volumes continued a seasonally normal, four month decline, decreasing just less than one percent in January. Year over year, January’s shipment volume was 3.6 percent higher than in 2011. Last year, bad weather impacted January freight movements; this year, the story is the slump in the economy. The 2011 GDP growth rate was 1.7 percent, well below the 3 percent growth in 2010.As in 2010, expectations for strong year-end sales led to inventory build-ups. When those sales failed to materialize, inventories climbed even higher. Consumers pulled back on spending in December, with retail sales increasing only 0.1 percent.
January Freight Expenditures
Total freight expenditures were essentially unchanged from December, while year over year they were up 22.1 percent. The year over year comparison is, however, misleading because January 2011 was the lowest point the Index reached in the last 18 months. Freight expenditures have leveled off in recent months as the reduced shipment volume took pressure off capacity and rates stabilized. Total freight spend has been relatively flat over the last several months, mirroring shipment volume, indicating that the rate increases that were prevalent for most of 2011 have slowed too.
02/15/2012
|
The Energy Information Agency (EIA) has released it short tem energy outlook and th highlights are shown below.
EIA expects the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil to average about $100 per barrel in 2012, almost $6 per barrel higher than the average price last year. Based on recent futures and options data, the market believes there is about a one-in-fifteen chance that the average WTI price in June 2012 will exceed $125 per barrel, and about a one-in-fifty chance that it would exceed $140 per barrel.
EIA expects that on-highway diesel fuel retail prices, which averaged $3.84 per gallon in 2011, will average $3.91 per gallon in 2012 and $3.99 per gallon in 2013
EIA expects regular-grade motor gasoline retail prices to average $3.55 per gallon in 2012, compared with $3.53 cents per gallon last year, and then average $3.59 per gallon in 2013. Recent options and futures price data imply that the market believes that there is about a one-in-four chance that the U.S. average pump price of regular gasoline could exceed $4 in June of this year.
02/15/2012
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The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported an increase in weekly rail traffic for the week ending February 4, 2012, with U.S. railroads originating 284,546 carloads, up 6.2 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 232,590 trailers and containers, up 16.8 percent compared with the same week last year. Note that the comparison week five in 2011 was affected by significant winter weather events.
For the first five weeks of 2012, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 1,429,346 carloads, up 1.3 percent from last year, and 1,110,227 trailers and containers, up 4.5 percent from last year.
Canadian railroads reported 77,225 carloads for the week, up 13.5 percent compared with the same week last year, and 51,262 trailers and containers, up 15.4 percent compared with 2011.
Combined North American rail volume for the first three weeks of 2012 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 1,859,489 carloads, up 1.6 percent compared to last year, and 1,390,511 trailers and containers, up 5.2 percent compared with last year.
02/15/2012
|
The Congressional Budget Office released a report the latest proposed reform bill would not only not stem the current losses, it actually generate a loss of $6.3 billion over 10 years. This is absed on a finding while there would be savings of $25.6 billion actual costs would be $31.9 billion during the same time period.
02/08/2012
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Intermodal container volume set a new record in 2011 with 12.4 million moves, beating former record-year 2007 by a noteworthy 3.7 percent, according to IANA’s Intermodal Market Trends & Statistics report released today. The North American intermodal industry showed its resilience during Q4 2011, delivering solid overall volume increases of 4.1 percent for the quarter and 4.9 percent for the year. It was intermodal’s second-consecutive year and eighth-consecutive quarter of year-over-year volume gains.
Record Q4 container volume was largely due to continued strength in domestic container loadings, which skyrocketed over 12 percent during the quarter and totaled 4.93 million for the year. This was a 9.6 percent increase over 2010’s total. Gains in domestic containers were solid in all IANA regions during the quarter. Big box domestic loadings of 48’ and 53’ domestic containers also posted their highest-recorded numbers in Q4 and the year, accounting for 39.8 percent of all container volume during 2011.
02/08/2012
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The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported that total U.S. rail carloads originated in January 2012 totaled 1,144,800, an average of 286,200 per week and up 0.1 percent over January 2011. Intermodal volume in January 2012 was 877,637 containers and trailers, up 1.7 percent over January 2011. January’s average of 219,409 intermodal units per week was the third highest ever for a January for U.S. railroads.
AAR reported mixed weekly rail traffic for the week ending January 28, 2012, with U.S. railroads originating 283,654 carloads, down 2.8 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 235,028 trailers and containers, up 5.5 percent compared with the same week last year.
Canadian railroads reported 75,427 carloads for the week, up 5.4 percent compared with the same week last year, and 46,916 trailers and containers, up 2.4 percent compared with 2011.
Combined North American rail volume for the first four weeks of 2012 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 1,484,566 carloads, up 0.3 percent compared to last year, and 1,097,360 trailers and containers, up 2.5 percent compared with last year.
02/08/2012
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