Loadsmart First Look Weekly Market Recap for Aug 24 – Aug 30.

Loadsmart’s Carrier Sales Manager, Jimmy Fahey, breaks down what happened last week and what to expect this week in the freight market for less than 60 seconds.

This is a weekly series that brings the insights we use to get your shipments from A to B from our carrier sales floor to your home office.

What we saw last week

Hurricane Laura made landfall last week over parts of eastern Texas and Louisiana. The storm was a category 4, but was downgraded to Category 1 when it made landfall. The storm brought high winds and heavy rains, which headed through much of the Mississippi Valley over the weekend. The storms forced shutdowns in many of the Gulf Coast ports, which extended into Monday, and caused disruptions in the oil and natural gas refining systems, which could reverberate through the coming weeks and affect the industrial sector.

The SoCal headhual index dropped last week by 61% as outbound volumes dropped over a couple of days; however, ocean volumes are still up year over year, which so capacity will likely remain tight for the foreseeable future.

Import volumes last week rose almost 50% higher than 2019 levels into the ports of LA and Long Beach, which has pushed OTR tender volumes out of LA up 73% year over year. Capacity will remain tight however, even if we are past our peak, especially as we head into peak retail season. 

What to look out for this week

Union Pacific announced a $500 surcharge on all excess contract cargo in Seattle starting Sept. 6th in an effort to shift as much available 53 foot intermodal equipment into the Southern California markets. 

We will continue to be on the lookout for the effects of Hurricane Laura, which could take months of clean-up and rebuilding, but also it’s effects inland, as there is potential for severe winds, tornadoes, and flash flooding inland. 

Looking into the week, expect capacity to tighten over the week due to inclement weather, the end of month push, and the upcoming Labor Day weekend, which typically tightens capacity. Furthermore, brokers, carriers and shippers, should begin setting expectations for the upcoming CVSA Internal Roadcheck, which will start Sept. 9 thru the 11. We will dive deeper into this next week on our market update.

Stay Up to Date

With all the latest weekly and monthly market insights on our Youtube page. Questions about anything you saw? Email sales@loadsmart.com and let’s talk about how we can help you take advantage of real-time market conditions.