Freight demand likely to remain high

Freight Demand Likely To Remain High – The largest drivers of freight demand are consumption and production, and for the past year the growth in consumption has been unprecedented.

The largest drivers of freight demand are consumption and production, and for the past year the growth in consumption has been unprecedented. The four largest month-over-month gains in retail sales have come since April 2020, largely driven by stimulus from Washington.

Production has not matched the trajectory, but the challenge has not been a lack of demand. For example, if the troubled aircraft industry is excluded, orders for durable manufactured goods have been running at record levels. Rather, the issue is supply of materials, components and labor, according to analysts.

Another significant factor in the demand for freight transportation is inventories – or, more to the point, the relation of inventories to sales. The inventories-to-sales ratio traditionally has been a key indicator for assessing near-term transportation demand. Individual sectors – manufacturing, wholesale and retail – have different norms for the ratio of inventories to sales, but as the ratio falls, experts expect to see pressure for inventory replenishment, which bolsters freight volume beyond the period of initial consumer or manufacturing demand.

The pandemic produced wild swings in inventories-to-sales ratios due to abrupt changes in consumption and production. As of February, the most recent month for which data is available, the ratios for the manufacturing sector are roughly in line with where they were before the pandemic, and inventories in wholesale are noticeably leaner than they had been.

Retail Inventories

Freight Demand Likely To Remain High – However, if one digs deeper it becomes clear that a single sector – motor vehicles and parts – skews the data.

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The most dramatic change has been in retail inventories. February saw an uptick in the ratio of inventories to sales following a record low retail inventories-to-sales ratio in January. With a huge jump in retail sales in March in the wake of the third round of stimulus, the inventories-to-sales ratio likely was as low as or even lower than January.

For trucking companies involved in hauling retail goods, this sounds like great news. It suggests that freight demand will outlive the bursts of consumption the nation has seen after each round of stimulus.

However, if one digs deeper it becomes clear that a single sector – motor vehicles and parts – skews the data.

Motor vehicles are far more expensive than any other retail item, so changes in inventories or sales of automobiles and light trucks have a large effect on total retail inventories and sales, even when changes are small. During the pandemic, those changes have not been small. Sales have been robust, but their growth has been mostly in line with retail sales in general. The distortion comes from inventories.

Total retail trade inventories in February were down 5.1 percent year over year. However, inventories of motor vehicles and parts were down 17.1 percent. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, retail trade inventories were up 1.2 percent. That is not much growth, but it is growth. Of course, retail sales have been so strong that the ratio of inventories to sales is still extraordinarily low. But if sales weaken down the road, the industry may not necessarily see the same demand for replenishment that would be seen if inventories were down on an absolute basis, according to analysts.

Freight Demand Likely To Remain High –  Aside from automotive, the only retail sectors with large declines in inventories during the pandemic are clothing stores and department stores – segments where lower inventories might not yield much sales pressure owing to the surge in e-commerce.

Aside from automotive, the only retail sectors with large declines in inventories during the pandemic are clothing stores and department stores – segments where lower inventories might not yield much sales pressure owing to the surge in e-commerce.

Automotive, however, faces a potentially crippling inventory crunch in the near term. While inventories are down quite sharply, retail sales of motor vehicles and parts were the highest on record in March. Meanwhile, automotive production during March was still about 8 percent below February 2020 (seasonally adjusted), and the near-term outlook for higher production is bleak due to the shortage of semiconductors.

The “glass half full” view of the situation is that extraordinarily tight inventories of cars, trucks and SUVs could keep automotive production humming for many months beyond the period of strong retail sales, analysts say.

(from HDT Trucking)