Industry Indicators: March 21st – April 1st

Industry Indicators: March 21st – April 1st

iLevel Logistics presents intriguing data that offers a snapshot of notable industry changes and events during the weeks of March 21st through April 1st.


What’s on the docket this week?

Profit margins, War and projected GDP, nation’s most pressing concern, what’s to blame for inflation, top websites, Walmart in Mexico, YouTube on rising, Africa and Russian wheat, U.S. strategic petroleum reserves, average container delays, monthly import growth, container shipping supply, predicting container freight rates, inflation expectations, and oil prices, Russian oil in demand, a survey of manufacturers rank supply chain challenges first, truck tonnage for February, ACT drive availability index, capacity factors for energy sources, Americans want Biden to be tougher on Russia, Gas tops inflation concerns, Consumer sentiment falls, Job opening remains elevated, truck trailers and chassis prices keep climbing, elevated shipping rates are here to stay, retailer inventories cannot keep pace with sales, & sources of gasoline prices.


Best profit margin since 1950

Source:  Bloomberg

2021 most profitable year for Corporations since 1950.  Strong household demand driven by large government cash transfers is responsible.  


War lowers GDP projections

Source:twitter: Bruce Mehlman


Most important problem facing the nation – inflation rises to heights not seen since 1985

Source:  Gallup


Whose to blame for inflation?  

Source: NBC News


Top 50 websites

Source:  visual capitalist


Walmart owns most supermarkets in Mexico 

Source: visual capitalist


YouTube on the rise

Source:  Pew Research Center


A looming crisis – dependence on Wheat from Russia and Ukraine

Source:  UNCTAD


US strategic petroleum reserve on the way down

Source: Bloomberg


Disruption in container logistics 

Source: McKinsey


Inflations expectations worth watching – highly correlated with oil prices

Source:  full-stack economics


Oil prices since 2000

Source:  Yahoo finance


Russian oil in demand – second biggest exporter in world

Source:  supply chain brain


Survey of manufacturers rank supply chain challenges first

Source: SC Digest


Trucking tonnage remains flat in February

Source: CCJ


Are you better off today than a year ago?  

Source:  Tipp Poll


ACT driver availability index improving

Source: MH&L


Capacity factors – how much energy is produced relative to the power source's theoretical maximum

Source:  AIER

Nuclear best, wind and solar significantly lower.

From capacity factors, experts can examine the annual energy production of a hypothetical 1-gigawatt power plant of different sources.

Conclusion: The cost of building out weather-dependent renewables is tremendous: “To reach 5,000 GWh of energy production from a natural gas facility, we need only a 1-gigawatt plant. To reach the same amount of energy production from an onshore wind facility we need to build a 1.6-gigawatt facility. For solar we’d need to build over 2 gigawatts of production, doubling the actual price.”


Americans want Biden to be tougher on Russia

Source:  AP news


Gas tops the list of inflation concerns

Source:  AP news


Consumer sentiment falls in March – remains near recessionary levels

Source: AIER


Job openings remain near all-time highs

Source: CNN


Prices for truck trailers and chassis maintain a steep rise

Source: TruckingInfo


Will shipping costs ever return to pre-pandemic levels?

Source:  Supply chain brain


Retailer inventories cannot keep pace

Source:  WSJ


Average annual components of a gallon of regular retail gasoline.


Job quits are still historically high

Source:  AIER

Quits are higher in most sectors – including Transportation (in green), than average quit rates prior to the pandemic (horizontal line at 2.14%). 


That’s all for this week.  Thanks for reading.  



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