News
As he prepared to begin a second term as Colombia’s president on August 7th, the first name that Juan Manuel Santos inked in for his cabinet was Mauricio Cardenas, who keeps his job as finance minister. That was no surprise: helped by an investment boom, the country’s economy grew by 6.4% in the first quarter compared with the same period last year. Mr Cardenas says the second quarter was strong, too. The government will be raising its growth forecast for this year from 4.7%.
“The Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI), which is based on the amount of freight carried by the for-hire transportation industry, rose 0.9 percent in July from June, rising after a one-month decline, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS). The July 2014 index level (119.6) was 26.5 percent above the April 2009 low during the most recent recession.”
MIQ Logistics wishes to provide information concerning a shortage of chassis in the major ports at both U.S. coasts.
Today the monthly report from Global Port Tracker was released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. The report points to import volumes at the U.S. ports that are covered by Global Port Tracker to approximate 1.47 million containers in the month of September. The all time record for U.S. imports was hit in August 2014 when the container count hit approximately 1.53 million TEU’s.
Shipment Volumes
“August shipment volume increased 2.3 percent, reversing some of last month’s 3.9 percent slide. August shipments are 4.9 percent higher than a year ago and are up 13.9 percent in 2014. The Institute for Supply Management’s August PMI rose 3.3 percent to 59, the highest level since March 2011’s 59.1, indicating that domestic manufacturing is continuing to gain strength. Driving this PMI increase were new orders, increasing by 5.2 percent, and order backlog which climbed 5.1 pcercent.”
On Friday 9/5/14, the Burea of Labor Statistics released their latest “Employment Situation Summary”. For the month of August, total nonfarm payroll employment witnessed an increase of 142,000; with the current U.S. unemployment rate at 6.1%.
China’s State Administration of Taxation (SAT) issued guidance (Bulletin 42) that extends VAT-exempt treatment to all international freight forwarding services. The new rules went into effect on September 1, 2014.
Economic activity in the manufacturing sector climbed in August; for the 15th consecutive month:
