On Tuesday, the Cass Freight Index Report was released, providing a snapshot of the freight logistics sector for the month of July; below are some of the highlights:
“The freight logistics sector slowed in July, following a seasonal trend, with both freight shipments and freight payments down 3.9 percent from the previous month. This drop was consistent with previous summers’ drops, so should not be seen as a start of a decline in freight for the second half of 2014.”
Today the Global Port Tracker report was released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. The report points to August being forecasted as the highest U.S. import volume month on record (Global Port Tracker began tracking import volumes in the year 2000). U.S. ports followed by the report handled 1.48 million Twenty-Food Equivalent units in the month of June, and estimates for August, September, October, November and December can all be found below.
Forecasted TEU per month can be found in the chart below:
On Thursday 8/7/14, the Burea of Labor Statistics released their latest “Employment Situation Summary”. For the month of July, total nonfarm payroll employment witnessed an increase of 209,000; with the current U.S. unemployment rate at 6.2%.
The CBSA manages trade compliance with the Tariff Classification, Valuation, and Origin programs using the following two post-release verification processes: (1.) Random verifications and, (2.) Verification priorities.
The new version of the HS includes 234 sets of amendments. Environmental and social issues are a major feature of these amendments, due to the importance of the HS as a global tool for collecting trade statistics and monitoring trade.
Economic activity in the manufacturing sector climbed in July; for the 14th consecutive month:
OVERLAND PARK, Kan., July 31, 2014 – Global Trade magazine named MIQ Logistics one of America’s Top 3PLs (third-party logistics providers) and one of the Top 10 providers in its Most Versatile category. The magazine will publish its complete list of leading 3PLs in the September/October issue.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced a plan to unify the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (“C-TPAT”) and Importer Self-Assessment (“ISA”) programs under a new test program called the “Trusted Trader Program.”
“Consumer confidence increased for the third consecutive month and is now at its highest level since October 2007 (95.2). Strong job growth helped boost consumers’ assessment of current conditions, while brighter short-term outlooks for the economy and jobs, and to a lesser extent personal income, drove the gain in expectations. Recent improvements in consumer confidence, in particular expectations, suggest the recent strengthening in growth is likely to continue into the second half of this year.” – The Conference Board
