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State of Logistics 2016: Pursue mutual benefit An election season look at the economy Q3 industrial real activity activity remains strong, says JLL Pack Expo: U.S. domestic shipments of packaging machinery rising to $8.5B by 2020 Pack Expo: U.S. remains largest market for pharmaceuticals and medical devices More News Many times before in this space, especially in 2016, I have talked about the economy, specifically as it relates to the freight transportation and logistics sectors. And more often than not, the conclusions found center around the theme that more needs to happen, and even though the economy is “recovering,” it is not happening at enough of a quick clip. Among the things we have highlighted in this space as some of the primary drivers for the ongoing economic malaise are: a still strong dollar, high inventories, low GDP, fluctuating energy prices, things going on in other nations like China and a post-Brexit Europe, among many others. What’s more, the current third quarter earnings releases for freight transportation and logistics players, save for a few companies, also pointed to relatively mundane market conditions that negatively impacted earnings. These things included the ongoing decline of coal on the rail side, cheap fuel prices continuing to impact the intermodal market, and lower demand and tonnage for both truckload and LTL carriers, not to mention the myriad things affecting the ocean cargo market like abundant overcapacity, getting back to normal post-Hanjin, and the rapid pace of industry consolidation and alliances. That said, there has been, and remains, much to be concerned about when it comes to the economy. But, and I know we have been here before, there have been more than a few things to at least be optimistic about moving forward. What are those things? I will get to that soon […]